The Insane Foreshadowing of To You 2000 Years Later - Overanalyzing Attack on Titan & Retrospective

attack on titan is one of my favorite stories ever told during its run i spent countless hours discussing theories with friends nerding out over all the tidy tiny details and generally diving deeper into the show than what most people would consider healthy and as such i thought what is a better way of sharing my passion for the series in anticipation of its ultimate conclusion than to meticulously go through the entire thing and talk about literally every single detail i want to bring up everything from foreshadowing to music and cinematography things like the first episode blatantly showing you aaron can see the future the closing credits showing you a mere story the world beyond the walls being hinted at even in season 1 the stellar soundtrack and countless others but with all that said let us dive in [Music] perhaps very fittingly the first thing i want to talk about is the very opening sequence of the first episodes it's those first 30 seconds that are crucial in establishing the tone for the rest of the series think the first shots of death note showing you the sheenigami realm rick shooting the zombified girl waltzer fleeing in the deserts and even the narration in avatar all of them immediately throw you head first into the setting and show you what to expect from this new world even before explaining what it's all about an attack on titan is no exception the narration by armin combined with this dissonant and almost uncomfortable music as the colossal titan looks down on everyone in the walls brilliantly establishes the absolute insignificance of humans and it's only as we pan behind the colossal that the epic music begins to play showing the true and insurmountable scale of what they're going up against of course this is already an example of attack on titan's stellar soundtrack but for all intents and purposes in most stories this would be seen as the absolute final enemy though knowing what we know now it makes that insignificance even more pronounced as of right now the humans really are nothing more than cattle they live in their pen and to them that is the entire world they've never known anything else so the concept that this is in fact an active war waged upon their people is about as inconceivable as it is for the farm animal to realize that their pen is not their natural environment and without ever skipping a beat we jump right over to the scout regiments or in retrospect what is actually the other side of this warfront and here too we are introduced to the world butts from a different perspective as we see the first use of the odm gear and the squad all circling around the single titan both reinforcing the importance of the colossal as this lone titan is clearly nothing compared to it as well as immediately establishing the idea that there is an ongoing resistance that is very experienced in dealing with the titans and with that said unbeknownst to us the two sides of a war we didn't even know existed and would only learn of years later are established within the first two minutes it's details like this that make attack on titan such a joy to watch because again in retrospect we know that the titans are essentially units of war for marley so while the formal war would only begin far far later into the series we now know that the very first minutes of the show were already a part of that same war on initial viewing when we got to seasons 2 and 3 it felt like a massive tonal shift whereas in reality nothing actually changed we simply gained perspective the mystique around the titans was removed and we learned that they aren't some force of nature and that they are in fact a part of a much larger conflict and of course i can deny there's the monkey brain side of us where these scenes are there just to generate hype which i most certainly think they do showing you the quote-unquote big bad right away allows the show to slow down for a bit with the promise of something bigger to look forward to and then seeing the odm gear in action is just eye candy and with all that in mind as far as i'm concerned this is quite literally a perfect opening sequence it is back with so so much meaning most of which only becomes clear in retrospect as well as simply gets you intrigued in this world with again exploiting the monkey brain side of us but we then move into the very iconic first op of the series and first and foremost i want to emphasize the tone of it especially when you contrast it against the other openings later in the series it's uplifting it carries that fighting spirits which would be a major through line in the first couple of arcs where we still knew very little about the titans as of right now it's a war against all odds humanity against the world and so instead of the much more realistic and downright brutal openings we get later on this one is far more vibrant to convey that the lyrics themselves also pretty blatantly tell you that over the course of the story the hunted would in fact become the hunters which as is common in attack on titan is actually true in more ways than one as you can both refer that to the titans becoming the haunted as well as later into the story the marley enforces themselves and again moving past all that here too there's just the pure eye candy that is studio wits animation which is on full display we then get the title card which for a premiere of a series is certainly a curious one to you 2 000 years later in retrospect we of course know that it refers to emir the origin of the titan's power as the true meaning of it would later be revealed in the episode from you 2 000 years ago though again for a first episode it certainly leaves you wondering about what exactly is going on here especially because in the establishing shots we'd see later there is also the explicit notes that this is the year 845. under normal circumstances this would imply that time itself would in some way play a major role in what we'd see almost as if it were a historical retelling of events however if you simply wanted to convey the passage of time it is far easier to just say x years later right well by using a very specific number the show is already implicitly telling you that we won't be moving in just one direction which is further backed up by the highly ambiguous title of the episodes and if you still had any doubts about this we also see aaron's quote-unquote dream in which he'd very clearly see the future both seeing the smiling titan eat his mother which of course we'd later find out to be dina yeager as well as numerous scenes which are yet to happen in retrospect of course we know how and why that happens though even aside from that i think you'll agree that if you are paying very close attention there are enough clues to begin to hypothesize that time would play a crucial role in some manner at this very moment obviously jumping to any sort of time travel is a massive leap in logic though again with aaron seeing a glimpse of the future it should raise some major red flags for you because in this instance it's not some sense of impending doom or anything like that it's a highly specific vision describing exactly what would happen later in the episodes and on this note let me introduce you to the concept of the chekhov's gun as it would be leveraged by isayama countless times throughout the series in case you've never heard of it before the term originates from anton chekhov who held the belief that each and every element of the story must be necessary and that irrelevant ones should be removed there shouldn't be any fake outs false promises etc etc everything is there for a reason there's a lot more history there if you're curious but just to give you a basic example the chekhov's volcano why make it a volcano if it's not going to erupt it could have just been a mountain and this sort of hyper-critical perspective should be applied to absolutely all elements of the story thereby removing every single element that does not contribute to the grander narrative and as i said before isayama leverages this concept absolutely masterfully an error in seeing the future in this case is a very good example of that as of right now you can write it down to a cinematic decision to set the mood and foreshadow the events of the episodes but as you get further into the story and start to see someone like krueger talking about characters that are not even born yet you realize that it was in fact an element of the story established way back then and while we're still talking about this let me clear up some confusion as to how aaron was able to see the future in the first place as you'd expect when you introduce any sort of time travel to a series things can quickly get very very confusing so i know quite a few people are still confused about aaron's abilities especially because he doesn't even have the titan yet first and foremost let's define the rules by which we're playing starting with the attack titan itself the power of the attack titan is to see the memories of its future inheritors however the one who wields the ultimate control over this ability is that future inheritor so in a way it's rather the holder of the future titan that's choosing to show them their memories now but importantly there is no time travel remember that the titan holders can see the memories of past holders the attack titan on the other hand can see in both directions both past and future so it's not traveling in time rather it's aaron specifically choosing which memories he wishes to show to the previous holders of the attack titan it's a vision and nothing more though secondly we need to look at the type of time travel that we're operating in again remember that we are looking at the idea behind it not the specificities of how it works because again aaron is not traveling in time so with that said there are three major ways how time travel is usually portrayed a fixed timeline a dynamic timeline and a multiverse without getting into all the confusing details put briefly attack on titan operates in the fixed timeline also often called the deterministic version the idea here is that everything that has happened and will ever happen has already happens there is no starts and no beginning you cannot change anything that happens because it has already happened and you can change anything that will happen because it too has already happened this approach to time travel is the only one that keeps stories in check while still incorporating the idea of some sort of time manipulation because no matter how much you try to get around this the explanation is simple you cannot change the events in any way there is no room for any retcons or anything else of that nature because the story is already written and yes it is confusing to wrap your head around at first that's exactly why some absolutely love it while others hate it and lastly there's emir the founding titan and its control over the memories of eldians remember that the founding titan originally wiped out the memories of aldeans living on parody and then remember that aaron addressed all the aldeans in his founding titan form and remember that the paths of the titans themselves transcend time with these three facts in mind you have a couple of ways of looking at it the simplest answer is that the reason why aaron sees the future is because the future aaron chose to show it to him because it is already happens he may not have the titan now but he will meaning that he does already and yes i know that sounds confusing but in this case future aaron just showed his memories to his past self this is backed up by the fact that he sees his mother's death exactly how it is portrayed to us and because we follow aaron in the series it lends credence to the fact that these memories are in fact his own though the second perspective draws a bit more on the wider lore of attack on titan and instead of focusing on aaron focuses on amir instead remember that the title of the episode is to you 2000 years later and then remember that the original legend of amir's power is that she made a deal with the devil and finally looking at the final season's ending song devil's childs piecing that together and this is sort of my own headcanon as i think it fits much better with the grander narrative it's rather a mere who shaped aaron into what he became and ultimately set her free we know for a fact that the paths transcend time so it could just be that for one reason or another aaron was the first ever person who was capable of reaching a mere within the paths and relating to her and surprise surprise this is exactly what we'd see in the episode from you 2000 years later aaron has received the message and here he is even literally saying the one who led me here was you personally i like this perspective quite a bit more as it gives an additional dimension to the whole it was airing all along way of thinking yes it was aaron who did the unthinkable but all of that was still influenced by emir whose entire story basically revolves around being a slave and because aaron's drive for freedom defines so much of his character i think it just makes sense but at the end of the day both of these perspectives are extremely similar and it's just the wider implications that differ so if you take away anything from all this it's just the fact that it does not matter whether aaron has the titan right now or not because the power itself transcends time and with all that said he wakes up from his long dream crying again in retrospect the reason for the seemingly small throwaway moment becomes very very clear and is another example of the chekhov's gun-like element in the series obviously the series is yet to conclude fully but even without knowing the exact cause for air and crying the fact that it's emphasized so much in the following couple of minutes should already raise some red flags though i have three different ways of looking at this event and because the final part of the season is still so so far away i might as well throw out my theory that i've had for the past two years now and the fact that the final season began two years ago is insane but anyway in shorts the crying thing happens because aaron cries when he is killed by mikasa to stop the rumbling in turn protecting him from what he's about to do one last time in my mind it makes perfect narrative sense as protecting air and is the absolute backbone of mikasa's character and we'll be talking plenty more about that in just a bit so yes that's been my prediction ever since the final season began though my second line of thinking is that it loops back or i guess forward to the last time he ever felt happiness when they connected with those people after they arrived at marley for the very first time knowing what we know now it's at that moment when aaron essentially went against the entire world largely on his own so i don't think it's a stretch to say that remembering that moment is what prompts him to cry especially because it's also that moments where he essentially turns his back on mikasa and lastly my third way of thinking is a lot more abstract because it never connects to a single point in time at all rather it's aaron thinking about all the times where he could have done things differently and how he might have actually found happiness keep in mind that once he entered the paths time itself basically does not matter anymore so from aaron's perspective he sees the past the presence and the future including supposedly his own demise so all of that looping back to his long dream may rather be just an instance of air and seeing the tragedy that his life would become and that's what prompts him to cry not a single event but rather everything that has happened going as far back as emir and if you want to take that idea even further it's not even aaron who cried it's amir once aaron finally reached her but regardless i guess we'll just have to wait for the attack on titan season 4 second half part 53 extended this time for sure final episode to find out though once mikasa and aaron begin to make their way back to the house we see another interesting exchange between hans and aaron that in retrospect is particularly interesting we see aaron ask him if he's drunk how is he going to fight considering aaron's motto later in the series basically becomes fight fights watching these episodes now really makes you realize that broadly speaking aaron never really changed as much as you think he did if anything he just zeroed in on that initial wish of killing everything outside of the walls though perhaps even more importantly when hans asks him why and when would he have to fight aaron outright tells him when they breach the wall and invade the city on initial viewing obviously this just seems like aaron being a hot-headed kid while in reality it's both foreshadowing the things we'd see just a few short hours later as well as everything that would follow in the larger story and this also brings up the question of whether aaron here is in fact subconsciously warning them of what he knows to be true as we just talked about he wakes up crying so there's a very good argument to be made that he did see his entire lifetime in that dream obviously not fully consciously but on a subconscious level he knows what's going to happen today he saw his mother's death and so in retrospect this carries a lot more weight simply by the nature of it actually turning out to be a 100 correct statement and another thing we're shown right from the get-go is aaron's drive to join the survey corp with the wish of seeing what there is beyond the walls first off this just masterfully plans the question of what is out there the titans seem to come endlessly so surely there must be an explanation outside of the wall right it's just a premise that immediately sparks discussion and theories because this sort of curiosity about the unknown exploits a fundamental aspect of how we think it's human nature to seek answers about the unknown and adding the mystery of the titans on top of that just compounds that to an even greater degree most of us have probably forgotten about the simpler times when the colossal was the big boss of attack on titan and the largest mystery was in fact what's beyond the wall but try to picture yourself back in that place you have to agree that it does instantly make you want to find out more doesn't it and the same exact principle would apply to the basement later on though secondly it also very quickly establishes many of aaron's core personality traits he is very ambitious he is not scared of what's out there he'll do everything in his power to find out what that is and most importantly he will stop at nothing to protect his home from what that may be throughout the series these traits would basically dictate every single one of his actions even up to the very latest episodes everything he has done is dictated by these few traits though on a similar note we then see the bells ring out signaling the return of the scouts and here we get a very pronounced juxtaposition to the drunk guards without a care in the world that we just saw as we now see the scouts who without an exception are all in some way scarred be it physically or mentally as is trend with attack on titan this scene achieves many many things all at once some of which you may easily overlook number one it cements aaron's seriousness about venturing beyond the walls it's a fairly common trope for a hot-headed kid to claim that he's going to be the next hero but in aaron's case we see that he does very much realize what going outside of the walls means but regardless he still wishes to pursue it in number 2 we see a mother of one of the scouts cry out about her son and it's then that we get a very pronounced version of expectations usually you'd associate these sorts of military parades or soldiers returning with at least some level of triumph obviously everyone involved still knows that some soldiers fell but there is always the assumption that they did it with some greater goal and were rather a sacrifice for the greater goods rather than just a dead soldier in this case however that sort of thinking is completely disregarded as we see commander heath begin to say that yes he made a sacrifice but then composing himself and saying that they've achieved absolutely nothing all there is is countless dead soldiers and absolutely nothing to show for it this basically works as a tone setting scene to remind you of what we saw in the opening sequence the world outside of the walls is absolutely brutal and that's even more pronounced after aaron talks to the quote-unquote soldiers who are just living out their days as if there was no threat at all though importantly it's a crucial moment for aaron to realize that even with the countless dead soldiers that have ventured beyond the walls they've achieved nothing meaning that humanity is not and will not be safe his mother's death would basically be the last straw in his case after which he dedicate his life to fighting what's out there though more on that in just a second for now just note that aaron's pursued to join the corp is not some heroic deed setting him up to be the chosen one or anything like that rather it's hammering home the idea of how pointless his pursuit would turn out to be and again in retrospect that is crystal clear following this we get one of the famous mid cards of attack on titan this one explaining the size of the walls and i bring this up because even to this day i still remember seeing it for the first time and wondering about where the walls could actually be in a real life setting some quick napkin math tells you that the total territory within the walls themselves is around 724 000 square kilometers that's around 280 000 squared miles for you imperial folk on the other side of the sea get it other side of the sea cause attack on titan but on a serious note just use metric come on anyway for context that means that the territory within the walls themselves is almost twice the size of japan that is certainly huge but still a very small territory compared to the rest of the world in terms of size the human territory is basically the island of borneo and with that said apply the chekhov's way of thinking again why give us explicit numbers if the goal is not to give a sense of scale and assuming that the world of attack on titan at least to some extent resembles the earth that question of what might actually be out there becomes so much more daunting because comparatively the known territory is absolutely tiny in retrospect we can of course confirm that these numbers hinted at the fact of parody being just an island though even not knowing that i think the idea of what's out there is established beautifully here if you don't pick up on it the mystery is still there but if you do pick up on it that sense of scale just makes it so much worse and once mikasa and aaron return to the house we get one of the most famous scenes in the entire series though before we get to the major implications of it there are a few smaller details i want to tackle first first of all this is another instance of aaron's mother asking mikasa to protect him this will be reinforced in just a few minutes but this is one of the most important aspects of mikasa's character throughout the entire series we've already seen her try to talk aaron out of becoming a scout because of how dangerous it is and now his mother explicitly asks her to once again look after him put briefly her entire mo has always been to protect aaron even if it is from himself just like we saw with her trying to convince him to not go outside of the walls and just like we are seeing in the present story as far as characters go you can apply the chekhov's principle to basically everyone in this episode as it is the premiere of the series their most important character traits have to be established and so we see mikasa's mission of protecting aaron aaron's drive to ensure that humanity is safe and finally armin being the strategist who tackles his problems with brain rather than brawn and as long as you keep these three factors in mind you will always have a very good idea of how their characters might react but alright let's get to the good stuff as in retrospect there is so so much more to this scene than we originally knew as this is the memory to which aaron and zeke return and yes in case you are wondering most of these shots are indeed replicated one-to-one in episode 1 the whole basement reveal obviously held very little meaning as we had literally zero clue as to what that may entail it merely works to drive your curiosity as to why it may be a big deal for aaron though importantly it's only after aaron proclaims that he wishes to know what's beyond the walls that he promises to show him the basements as at this point grisha knew that there was much more to aaron than meets the eye again remember that venturing beyond the wall is not a norm and then remember grisha's true backstory aaron finally seems like the perfect person to shape into what he wants and that is just turned up to 11 because in retrospect we know that he was seeing the memories from the future aaron we'll be delving into this particular aspect of the story once we actually get there but i'll be the first to admit that i don't think there's another series out there that has managed to reshape so much of how you view past events in the story let alone four seasons ago obviously your perspective will always change on a re-watch but not to the extent that you watch a scene and know that there's an entire dimension of it missing right i know when it comes to moments like these many people often get caught up in talking about whether these are retcons or was the entire story really planned out right from the get-go but i will simply ask does that really even matter personally i do think that at least a vast majority of the attack on titan's story was completely mapped out before it started mainly because of how much evidence there is for such a claim as we move further into the series there is truly an insane number of details that would directly play into the final arcs so i'm inclined to believe that the big picture was at least there obviously parts of it have changed almost no writer ever expects to have their entire story published that's just how the industry is though that does not in any way mean that you can't have the entire story thought out beforehand all you have to do is organize it in a way that would sell so instead of giving lore dumps in the first season or first volume or first book instead make it pedal to the metal action to attract a wider audience and when they're invested then move on to the politics surprise surprise that's exactly what we saw in attack on titan the same exact story is still there all that's changed is the order and the way you tell it though to play devil's advocates let's say all of these are retcons every single thing the only things that isaiah might plans is the first colossal titan well wouldn't you agree that being able to leverage past story elements to such an extent is what defines a brilliant writer being able to weave in past events to craft something much bigger is the entire genius of it isn't it and on top of that at what point does an element of a story become a retcon because in this case nothing was changed you were merely given a different perspective of those same events but regardless as i said watching these episodes back with a fresh perspective just elevates them so so much more and i could talk about these scenes literally for hours so for the time being that's where we'll leave that though as i already touched upon before we get another sequence that would cement the characteristics of our main trio we see aaron rush in to protect armin who's tried to talk his way out of the situation but because he's clearly in over his head it's mikasa who's there to protect aaron you can basically copy paste the sentence over to the final season and it holds exactly because these characters are so so well defined already aaron always protects his own mikasa always protects aaron and armin is always the strategist who's a more level-headed advisor between the two this always holds and once again apply the chekhov's thinking this scene's only goal is to show you their dynamic and how that would define the story later on these kids never return again and i keep repeating this because it is crucial for understanding how the story of attack on titan is structured and how you can or i guess could use that to your advantage not because you're some big brain prediction machine but rather because that's what the story has been trying to tell you all along fact of the matter is as soon as aaron became a little sketchy you could easily pin mikasai's the one who'd be forced to stop him because again she always protects him even if it is from himself and if you want to be doubly sure feel free to go back to the video i made a couple of years back i honestly despised the video itself for a long list of reasons but so far at least basically everything i said there has turned out to be right because again i didn't make any far-off predictions i simply followed up the leads that isayama has planted there's still the possibility of a major curveball isayama is very well known for that after all though in terms of character-centric stories i think saying mikasa stops aaron is by far the safest bets but alright enough about that one of the final sequences we see in the first episode is very much the proverbial calm before the storm and yes here too we see the trio exhibit their signature traits armin is calmly and very realistically talking about how the walls may have stood uninterrupted for the past hundred years but that there are no guarantees that they'll continue to do so adding that the king has even made talking about what's beyond the wall's taboo which he considers as being ignorant of reality so yes the cool-headed one aaron on the other hand is annoyed by this saying that it should be an independent choice whether someone wants to go outside of the walls or not only for mikasa to interrupt him reminding him that that is dangerous and that he should rethink his scout's plan aka protecting him from his own ambitions but aside from the character-centric moments the way the scene is handled is simply perfect you get that quiet slightly unnerving music in the background while armin who's just a kids talks about what in their world is basically the biggest tragedy imaginable and all of that is juxtaposed by the seemingly peaceful life within the walls as we see kids playing people hanging up clothes etc it masterfully builds anticipation until we finally pan up to the wall and suddenly all sound cuts out and no more than a second later that signature lightning goes down as the entire village is shaken to its very core and what starts as confusion soon turns to horror as we see the colossal's hand grabbing the wall and so the episode comes full circle only this time we do not cut to the heroic mission of scouts as we did in the opening sequence instead that dread of this overwhelming enemy is compounded by that signature attack on titan music sharply cutting in and again in retrospect your understanding of the scene is so so different this is not some force of nature this is bertholtz he transforms hits the wall and leaves his titan form it's as simple as that remember how much of the story initially was about learning of how the colossal can seemingly appear and disappear at will but on a re-watch that part of the story is completely changed and now this is an explicit attack from marley and as aaron reaches his house the final piece of aaron's story is put into place as we see his mother stuck under the rubble as deena fritz or jaeger the infamous smiling titan appears as far as the sequence goes i just have to give massive props for the design of the smiling titan it's just a decision that made the already terrifying titans that much scarier it exploits that weird part of our brains that finds things like clowns extremely scary something about it just constantly smiling still gives me the creeps and that's further enforced as we see hands seemingly go to stop the titan only for his spirit to be absolutely broken as he comes face to face with this terrifying creature himself and the very last thing we hear from aaron's mother sets the tone for the rest of the show absolutely masterfully as she forces her own mouth closed and mothers don't go that one last primal hopeless plea for help while forcing herself to stay quiet out of the love for her kids is just masterful especially when you combine that with the absolutely brilliant music playing in the backgrounds i won't try to pronounce it but this is the track i'm talking about though as we see the reign of bloods we loop back to armin's narration at the start of the episodes saying that as the name of the song implies all there is for humanity is the humiliation of being caged like birds and with that you have a masterfully crafted first episode of a show that shows you so so much more than meets the eye everything from hinting at the importance of time in the series to a larger world beyond the walls to the trapped birds becoming free and everything in between as far as first episodes go this one still holds a very special place in my heart though with that said we're not done just yet because in attack on titan's case the closing themes are sometimes more than a little sus admittedly this one isn't nearly as spoilery as the ones to come but still it does have some details of interest first off visually it replicates the first opening only the swords are replaced by the knives obviously we'd see mikasa's backstory in just a few episodes so that's nothing too major what is more interesting is what we see after as we see mikasa sort of blinded by her scarf which you could read into her blindly protecting aaron without realizing that he needs protection from himself more so than anyone else but that is debatable though following that the scarf is blown away and we see an adult mikasa with much shorter hair and uh is this the final season mikasa this could easily just be her after the initial time skip because it's mostly the art style that had me doing a double take but hey there are more examples of them blatantly showing you the events that would only happen far far later into the series so who knows but with that this time for real we've arrived to the end of the first episode in what will hopefully become a long stay for the channel i hope you're just as excited as i am to methodology comb through the series with the power of hindsight to see just how many times the answers were staring us right in the face and that's the video as this trend at this point this one turned out to be way longer than i expected though as always i want to say a massive thank you to our current patrons who allow me to produce even more of these for you all speaking of which let us give a warm welcomes to the newest member of the team shoshin arts without you there be a whole lot less of my ramblings so seriously thank you thank you and if you wish to join the highly coveted mystery shack insiders club you can do so for as little as one dollar per month though with 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: 643,695

Keywords: Koroto's, Mystery, Shack, Korotos, Koroto, Attack on Titan, Overanalyzing, Analysis, AoT, Shingeki no kyojin, Foreshadowing in aot, foreshadowing in aot openings, foreshadowing, Season 1, Episode 1, To you 2000 years later, eren's dream explained, eren dream explained, how did eren see the future, Overanalyzing Attack on Titan, chekov's gun in atack on titan, from you 2000 years ago explained, erens attack titan explained, retrospective, Aot retrospective, attack on titan retrospective

Id: to5aTpMnJYE

Length: 41min 27sec (2487 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 19 2022