 What's up everybody, today we're talking about Attack on Titan Season 3 Episode 16 also known as Attack on Titan Episode 53 titled The Perfect Game. This is going to be a sort of recap and review so there will be plenty of spoilers. So if you haven't watched the episode yet, I don't know why I have to keep telling you guys this, get out of here, watch the episode and then come back and check out the review. For those of you that have seen it, let's dive right into it right now. So the episode picks up right where the last one left off which was the last remaining troops in this battle not doing really well. So inside the wall you have Aaron and his group and Hanja's group is currently unaccounted for they may have been wiped out. So as far as we know it's just Aaron, Gene, Mikasa and a few others inside the wall where the colossal Titan has just shown up and he is currently destroying everything basically heading towards the wall. Now if he gets to the wall right on the other side of that wall is Levi, Irwin and their crew in front of them is a bunch of houses that are sort of protecting them and then beyond those houses is the Beast Titan. So right now Levi and Irwin are sort of trapped between the Beast Titan and the Colossal Titan and that's the first thing I want to say about how great this episode is. You really feel how trapped the groups are and not only do they feel pinned down in a hopeless situation this is one of the first times where there's no plan. There's been many times in this series where the group gets stuck but they have some kind of Hail Mary plan. It's a crazy one it might not work but at least there's something they can try here right off the bat. Armin is the person that everyone's been counting on inside the wall to figure out the strategy. He's always the one that finds the clue and figures out what to do. The first thing that happens this episode is he gives up. He hands the reins over to Gene and you can see how terrified Gene is but he knows that if he doesn't take over when he's asked to after Aaron's already given up his responsibilities or after Armin's already given up his responsibilities people are just going to lose it so Gene takes control but as they go towards the river on Gene's suggestion Gene turns to Armin and tells him look I can take over for now but in the end we are all still counting on you so if you weren't worried then about two minutes into the episode you get worried when you see even Armin can't think of anything they can possibly do right now. The only knock against this episode is the starting and I just haven't been as big of a fan of the starting in this season as I have in previous seasons. It's not bad but every season the opening theme ends up on my running playlist and I just don't think it's going to happen this season but that's okay. We won't hold it against the episode at least not too much. So that's what's happening inside the wall. Armin's basically given up control handed it over to Gene outside the wall Levi, Erwin and their group are hiding behind the houses somewhat protected until the beast titan starts picking up rocks crushing them up and throwing them at the group and this is where the episode gets truly terrifying. Every time those rocks hit and they're hitting every 30 to 60 seconds while you're outside the wall you know Erwin and Levi will be talking to each other and then constantly in the background you'll just hear a crash you'll hear screaming you'll see blood splatter buildings blow up so you really feel just how screwed they are. You don't see a way out and they really ramp up the tension with the music. If you watch the episode again and pay attention you'll hear that some of the music they play has the sound of a ticking clock and that just adds to that feeling kind of like in Christopher Nolan's movie Dunkirk. There's a ticking clock almost a whole movie which just adds to the tension of they've got to move fast this beast titan is destroying everything the colossal titan is heading towards the wall they're about to get trapped and they are are sort of humanity's last hope so things aren't looking good so they see inside the wall now Eren and the group they see the colossal titan heading towards the wall and they know they've got to stop him because otherwise Levi and Erwin are in big trouble so Eren screams you know the titan scream that you've heard before colossal titan looks over doesn't really pay attention he knows it's just an attempt to distract him so he keeps heading towards the wall so now Eren charges with his whole team sitting on his shoulders Eren charges at the colossal titan the music swells and it feels like hell yeah go take down the colossal titan is he gonna do it is he really gonna do it and then the colossal titan kicks him Eren goes flying into the wall and he's down for the count he stops moving and there's actually a sort of funny moment here where you cut to outside the wall and you see Levi in his deadpan way he sees Eren hit the top of the wall he looks up and just says he got himself flung into the wall and then he looks up at the colossal titan and says by him just taking it in doing the calculations realizing yeah we're in big trouble right now what do we do now and continuing the theme of we are stuck there's nothing to do we don't have a plan Levi asks Erwin if he has any kind of plan but we just cut away and we don't see an answer so the people that were counting on this whole series Erwin Levi Armin the people that always have the answers suddenly we're finding they don't and that just adds to the fact that in this episode things feel more dire than they have before which is really impressive for this series because how many times have we seen them backed into a corner and then find a way out even if there's always a price to pay but they find a way out so it's hard for them to keep ramping up the tension and get us to feel at least what I felt watching this episode which is how the heck can they possibly get out of this and there's no way they will without some heavy casualties so with Aaron down for the count Mikasa and the rest figure we've got to keep fighting we've got to stop the colossal titan and they realize he's never seen the thunder spears maybe they can use those on him and they try to Mikasa gets there with the thunder spears to the back of the titans neck but as we've seen before he releases that hot air flings the thunder spears away some of the shrapnel hits Mikasa and that plant failed and then we see a terrified look on Mikasa's face Armin's face Jean's face and we see not only do they have to contend with the colossal titan but now the armored titan is back too so just they just keep piling it on this episode more and more and then we get back outside the wall and one thing that gets played up a few times in this episode so at a certain point we learn that the beast titan has done such a good job of taking down the last remaining troops all that's left at this point is Irwin Levi and a bunch of new recruits that have never been in this kind of a battle before not only have they never been in this situation before but they just saw a bunch of their comrades people who were much better skilled much more trained than them get taken out like that so these new recruits are terrified and they don't shy away from showing us what that looks like there's one recruit in particular that they focus on as sort of the person to represent the fear that all of them are feeling and we see him break down several times this episode he just doesn't want to die and he just doesn't see what kind of meaning does his death have he's just going to get crushed by some rocks and everything he fought for brought him here and he gets to accomplish nothing it's really emotional this episode has a whole range of emotions moments where you never quite feel triumphant but you feel charged up where you think maybe we can accomplish something here maybe we can take down one of these damn titans you feel that and then you feel the utter hopelessness that these new recruits feel you breaks down and you can totally understand why and as if that wasn't enough Irwin reveals to Levi that there is a plan Irwin does have a way that they can get out but he casually tells Levi that the only way they can do it is if Irwin and all the recruits sacrifice their lives and when Irwin says that he has a breakdown and it's really emotional to see because Irwin is typically a very well put together very stoic character but he takes a seat and starts to lament the fact that he's come this far they are so close to the answers Irwin's or Eren's house is just inside those walls if they go into the basement they can find the answers the answer is that Irwin has wanted to see his whole life he's so close and I'll never get to see it and then Levi tells Irwin you fought well it's all thanks to you we've come this far I'm making the choice give up on your dream and die lead the recruits straight into hell I will take down the beast titan and this is one of those moments where you're sad but you're also fist pumping and saying hell yes I want to see Levi go up against the beast titan I want to see him take him down and then cut to we start to see the plan unfold and I should mention here back inside the wall where we last saw Mikasa Jean Eren totally failing against the colossal titan and then we see the armored titan show up we don't see them again this episode so there's a big cliffhanger there to see what's happening inside the walls right now but we see the plan unfold what has Irwin planned here what we see is essentially three groups of the new recruits charging towards the beast titan and they're all led right in the front is Irwin because he pointed out before that he'll never be able to get a whole bunch of new recruits to go on essentially a suicide mission unless he shows them look I'm willing to do it not only am I willing to do this but I'm going to go right in front which means I'm the first one to die the beast titan looks up and very casually remarks oh it's a suicide run which just makes you hate him even more we cut from the plan in action we cut back to where Irwin it tells the recruits about his plan he doesn't lie to them he doesn't say we're going to go take down the beast titan and maybe some of you will die he tells them in no uncertain terms they're going to die that recruit I mentioned earlier the one who broke down a few times you see him ask Irwin we're heading to our deaths Irwin simply says yes but when that recruit breaks down and starts to talk about how meaningless everything is Irwin gives an awesome inspirational pre battle speech which is one of the many reasons I'll be rewatching this episode over and over Irwin tells them we die trusting the living who follow to find meaning in our lives this is the sole method in which we can rebel against this cruel world and then you watch them all charge you see Levi go after the beast titan by using the odm gear there's no trees there's no buildings around so Levi has to use his gear on other titans to get to the beast titan and you see Levi get close to the beast titan while that goes on you see Irwin charge forward and he screams to everyone behind him my soldiers rage my soldiers scream my soldiers fight just before Irwin his horses and his comrades are torn to shreds by rocks thrown by the beast titan and one thing I should point out about the plan they're charging ahead but they've also shot a bunch of smoke signals into the air and sort of scattered seemingly to hurt the accuracy of the beast titans throws so the plan here is to create a distraction by sending all the recruits at the beast titan giving Levi a chance to swing at him and take down the beast titan and that's where the episode ends so if you can't tell I absolutely loved this episode I've loved the whole season but I really like this episode I would give it an A and it's for a few simple reasons if you can make me feel something if you can make me feel a lot of some things a whole range of emotions like this episode did I'm gonna love the episode if you avoid any crazy jumps in logic or anything weird that takes me out of the episode that's great this episode didn't have I always sucked in the entire time and am I going to rewatch the episode yes all those answers says that this is a great episode and bonus points for showing us angry Eren nothing gets me charged up like Eren getting angry at Titans even if it usually doesn't end all that well towards the beginning of the episode for example you see Eren watching the colossal titan destroying the town and you see Eren think to himself this time you think you can burn down my city and you can tell Eren just wants to take down that colossal titan he doesn't but it's still nice to see him rage like that anyway like I said I absolutely loved this episode I can't wait for the next one thank you all for watching if you enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the little bell icon so you get notifications whenever we release more videos like this one