 What's up guys and welcome to One Take. I'm Gil and today we're talking about Attack on Titan, season four, episode five, also known as episode 64, titled Declaration of War. Like I said, I'm Gil and I'm joined by my tech guy slash brother Alon. Yo. And this video will of course have spoilers through season four, episode five, but neither of us have read the manga so no spoilers from any future episodes. I'll start with my overall thoughts on the episode. So far this season, I've definitely been enjoying the show. It took a little bit of adjusting though, because when it started out, I think we were all a little bit caught off guard seeing a lot of new characters. There was definitely some level of confusion trying to figure out what exactly are we looking at? A lot of times when shows lean too hard into the mystery element, the frustration of trying to figure out what's going on can be distracting. I don't think this show ever strayed into that territory, but it got into the ballpark of it. I will say this episode fully pulled everything back in to clarity for me, and I love this episode. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and it's kind of a hard episode to recap because it felt like every line was so important from a plot or character or emotional standpoint. So a ton of reveals, obviously an amazing cliffhanger ending. I also just have to say this show has been pretty consistent with some of the themes it's looking at for years, and it's amazing to see how even up until now, they can find different angles and different ways to look at those themes. So we'll get into all of that as we talk through the details of the episode. I'll just say, again, love the episode, and let me pass it over to you Elan, anything to add at your overall thoughts of the episode? I thought it was a great episode. I think one thing they do really well in this show is they make you see both sides, like their viewpoints, the villain, who is the villain, who's the hero. I really like the way they show you everyone's perspectives in it. It kind of makes you, it's kind of weird trying to, you almost forgive certain characters for some of their actions in a way. Right, who are the bad guys? And it's hard to tell by the end of the episode. And speaking of which, we start the episode with a flashback to Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie back in their younger days. This is after they broke through the walls, as we saw in episode one of the series. Bertolt talks about how he's being haunted in his sleep, thinking about the guy that hung himself, which we saw a few episodes back. If you need a reminder, essentially after they broke through the wall and took the form of humans to blend in to Paradise Island, they ran into a man who told them about how he escaped the Titans attack, but abandoned three of his children in doing so. Annie thinks that he told them that because he wants to be forgiven. Bertolt thinks that he said it because he wanted to be judged by someone before taking his own life. And I think Bertolt is probably accurate here. And I also think they included this flashback here for a couple of reasons. One, like we already talked about, they want to sort of humanize people that we've seen as villains up until now. And besides that, I think they want to draw a parallel with Reiner, who towards the end of the episode, essentially begs Aaron to take his life. And his motivations, I think are pretty similar to this man who took his own life. So we'll talk about that when we get there. But first I'll pause here and say, a lot of times when shows or movies try to create sympathy for the villain, it doesn't always work for me. Thanos and Marvel, for example. A lot of people say, you know, he really, he was onto something there, but I hated him all the way through. This show is one of the rare examples where I do find myself sympathizing with Reiner. What about you, Ewan? Is it working as well for you as working for me? Yeah, I think especially because Aaron kind of explained why it works for me in this episode. I mean, Reiner was basically raised with certain viewpoints. He had no control over what he was taught. His entire childhood, he was taught that everyone on this island were evil demons or devils. So, you know, you can tell that in his own, like internally, he's got conflicting ideas right now. He's fighting with everything he's been taught with what he knows now. Right, if you're indoctrinated and told your entire life since you're a kid, hey, everybody on that island is a devil, you're gonna believe it. And even when Reiner and his friends were sent to do the original attack, they were still pretty much children. So, Aaron, having matured a bit now, he looks at them and it's hard to really fully blame them. And I thought that it's working very well. Then from there, we cut to the present where we see Aaron and Reiner in that basement and we have that great confrontation between them where Aaron reveals his true identity and essentially says, it's been four years. This was an incredible moment because how many times have we seen Eric as the Aaron, as the underdog in the weak position? How many times have we seen him fail and see people get the better of him? Finally, we have a moment here where Reiner is terrified. Aaron is the one in charge and viscerally, it just felt great to see as the episode goes on, those emotions get a little bit more complicated. But at least for that moment, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Support Gaming in the chat says, hello, hello, Support Gaming and he says, who is Eric? Great question, maybe we'll find out in the coming episodes. And then Aaron points out the number of people that are living in the building directly above them. He essentially points out that it's a residential building and everybody in there is looking out the window waiting for a Tiber to open up the curtains and begin his presentation. Now, when Aaron pointed up at all of the people above them, I sort of took that as a threat, essentially saying, when I or if I transform, a lot of people here are going to die, a lot of innocent people. I'm not 100% sure if that's how we were meant to read it, but on my second viewing, that's how I interpreted it. I don't know if you had any thoughts on that. No, I only watched it once and I didn't interpret it that way, but I don't think I put too much thought into it. It might've just been a get ready, we're about to have a very important presentation and it was just part of the buildup. Then we get an interesting moment before the presentation begins where Mr. Braun and Miss or Miss Braun and Mr. Leonhart meet. And that would be Reiner's mother and Annie's father. They talk, he mentions Hoover's passing. That would be Bertolt's father, who if you remember, Bertolt was eaten by Armin last season. Just watched the episode with our brother. Yeah, I walked into the kitchen and saw you watching that episode. And she starts showing some sympathy for his daughter, Annie. He assures her that Annie is still alive. And the last we saw, she was still encased in that crystal. So I'm very curious to know what they're going to do with Annie this season. And again, I think this just humanizes the characters more because now we're seeing their parents. We remember that just like Erin. They also have parents who care for them and miss them and hope they come back okay. And that's when I start to not really be as mad at them. But then I remember Annie and remember how much of a jerk she was back in season two. For some reason, the moment that sticks out to me is when she grabbed some of the soldiers by the rope from their ODM gear and we just sort of swing it. And throw them against buildings. I think of that and then the rage is back and I'm back on Erin's side. Then we see an unknown soldier walk over to the warriors in the crowd and say that Mr. Braun Reiner has summoned them. And of course he's lying. This unknown soldier tells Zeke Jaeger that he's wanted at the gate. Then he brings peak and porco. If you need a reminder, that's the cart Titan and the jaw Titan. And by the way, if there was one tight, if you had to pick any Titan power, which is the one you definitely wouldn't pick. The cart Titan. I would hate to be the cart Titan. As they walk, peak and porco, peak says that she could swear she's seen this soldier before. He says, I didn't come here to chit chat with a bunch of Eldians. And she says, that's a shame. Kind of fancy your beard. Now I'll pause there and you have a theory on who this unknown soldier is. Yeah, I mean, to me, it looks like Armin. Yeah, it seems like it's definitely Armin, right? Just picturing Armin with a beard is pretty funny. I mean, you mentioned that. I mean, he does look way taller than he should be. About twice his old height. Yeah, like I know like when you become a Titan, you get like super strong, but I don't know if you grow that tall. Maybe, I mean, it looks like him to me. It looks like him and why else would they, I mean, they keep saying you look familiar so it's got to be somebody we know. So I think it's Armin and I'm assuming he's in on some coordinated plan with Armin. Speaking of which, he brings what are their names? Peak and Porco to a trap and drops them into essentially a narrow pit which would prevent them from transforming into Titans because the space is too narrow. So I've got to assume, like I said, coordinated plan, get these Titans out of the way so Armin is more unobstructed when he finally does what he does at the end of the episode. We go back to Armin and Reiner. Reiner asked Armin why he came here. Armin says it's the same reason you did. Reiner was already kind of freaking out. He starts to freak out even more. They do a great job of just spanning the many emotions where it just keeps getting more and more until he totally breaks down by the end. Then Armin says it sounds like they're starting the presentation. Let's listen. So a lot happens in this presentation. I'll walk through it piece by piece. First, Tiber gets on the stage and tells the classic story with the help of puppets, which I thought was fun. 100 years ago, the Eldian Empire ruled the world with the power of Titans. Titans have destroyed entire cultures and civilizations. They have destroyed three times the current world population. When the Eldians ran out of enemies, they began slaughtering each other and the Great Titan War began. Then one Marley and Hero, Helos, tricked the Eldian Empire into killing each other and worked with the Tiber family to drive King Fritz to Paradise Island. Tens of millions of Titans await on the island and we're only alive right now because of a fluke. At any moment, those Titans can attack and the world would essentially be destroyed. To eliminate the threat, the Marleyans sent Titans to the island and as we know, only Reiner, only the armored Titan returned. So the Eldian Empire is alive and well. So he tells that whole story and that's a story that everybody in the audience has heard and as we know, that story is a lie. Aaron and Reiner back in that basement, we see Falco starting to wonder why Reiner is freaking out so much. Then realizes that Aaron must be, if Aaron is an old friend, he's probably an old friend from Paradise Island and he realizes that they're in a pretty precarious position right now. What did you think, by the way, of the way they told the story of this episode, cutting back and forth between the presentation then to the basement where you see Aaron and Reiner and just that building tension. I thought it was pretty cool. And I like, it seems like a good plan from Aaron actually to get in Reiner's head because Reiner's just sitting there just waiting. He knows at the end of this presentation something is gonna happen and the anticipation is just building up and you can see it. Exactly, it's so good. And I mean, I've said it five times already but what a great episode. I love the way they decided to tell the story. So the presentation continues. So now he says, you've all heard that story but recently we inherited the war hammer Titan and with it some memories. So here's the truth of what happened. There was no Helos. There was no Marlian hero. The one who ended the great Titan war was King Fritz himself. He was so sick of the Eldians vicious past and their oppression of the Marlians so he took back as many Eldians as he could took them all to Paradise Island, fabricated walls made of millions of colossal Titans and made of vow renouncing war so that if anybody inherited the founding Titan they would inherit his vow as well and they would never be able to use the power of those Titans to bring back the full wrath of the Eldian Empire. He told the world if anybody attacks Paradise Island we will unleash the Titans but that was a lie. He never intended to retaliate. If the Marlians came for the founding Titan he would let him have it but before that he wanted to have a brief paradise free of conflict within the walls. That was his final request but now we have a big problem. Somebody has stolen the founding Titans power and they're not part of the King's bloodline so they're not bound by his vow of peace. And Alon, who is that someone? Aaron? No, it was Eric. Aaron Yeager has the power of the founding Titan and they now see him as enemy number one. By the way, Perp Minded has just joined the chat. Welcome Perp Minded. He's a big anime fan. Let us know what you thought of the episode, Perp. We cut to Aaron and we see him start to heal. We see his leg grow back. Falco realizes he was tricked and all the letters that Falco has been sending have been to Aaron's comrades. So he's been a part of pulling this whole plan together. Aaron points out that he and Reiner had the same experience. Both thought that the other side were all enemies. Reiner thought everybody on Paradise Island was a devil. Then he got there, spent a few years there and learned some people are jerks but some people aren't. And now Aaron has had the same experience here. And Reiner collapses to the ground. He is the one who talked Annie and Bertolt into not giving up their mission. He's the one who talked them into going in and destroying the wall. He says, I wanted to be a hero and earned people's respect. Your mom was eaten by a titan because of me. I'm sick of this. I'm sick of myself. And then he begs Aaron to kill him. So this is where I think we're supposed to see a parallel between Reiner and that old man. Both of them committed a sin that is weighing on them. The old man abandoned his children and left them to die. And here Reiner has slaughtered many people. He's responsible for Aaron's mother dying. And I think he feels the weight of that because he's matured, he's grown out of his indoctrination and he knows that they're not all devils. So I think that's part of why they wanted us to see that flashback this episode. Then we get back to the presentation and Tiber says to the enemies of paradise, a declaration of war. And now we understand the title of this episode but before they can rally the troops and decide to go to Paradise Island in wage war, Aaron says to Reiner, like I thought, I'm the same as you. I think we were born this way. I keep moving forward until I destroy my enemies. He shakes Reiner's hand, then transforms, busts through the ground, destroys that building and seemingly kills Willie Tiber. Looks like he throws him into his mouth at the end there. So let's pause there. And that's where the episode wraps up. Amazing end of the episode. I thought, Alon, just in the moment where you saw this happen, what were your reactions? I thought it was pretty crazy and I didn't expect. I wasn't sure what he was gonna do there. I mean, you clearly see him starting to understand Reiner's perspective and part of me thought maybe Aaron's not just gonna go on a rampage and kill a bunch of innocent people but now I don't know, maybe he will. Exactly. For all I know, maybe he's the one who's going to initiate an all out war between Paradise Island and these guys. And that's where I was saying the episode starts to get complex with your emotions because part of you sees this and you're like, finally Aaron just fighting back and slaughtering the bad guys. And the other part of you gets vibes of a certain other show, Game of Thrones where a character we liked starts to turn potentially a little bit evil. But I would say it's working a lot better here. And not to say that Aaron is evil. I would say it's complicated. We don't know what he's going to do here. And in fact, I would say if I had to put my money on is Aaron going to become a supervillain and essentially destroy the world, bring back the wrath of the Eldian Empire, kill a bunch of innocent people? Do we think he's gonna go that way? I would say I'm not expecting that. And part of why I would say that is because, well, hey, I really don't wanna see that. But also I can't imagine that level headed Armin would ever go along with that. I think that there is some plan here. I mean, years have gone by since season three. He's been in hiding pretending to be somebody else in this other world. So they've been plotting. They sent all those letters. So I think he wants the world to see him as an enemy. He wants the world to have that fear. But ultimately I think they're trying to do something that will allow the Eldians to live in peace. I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of collateral damage. But like I said, it's complicated and it's amazing to see this level of maturity. I love seeing Arron having matured so much. They even brought up the moment where I think it was back in season two, Arron says to Reiner, something like, I am going to make you suffer and kill you in the worst way possible. And at that point in the series, we'd seen Arron get angry so many times and vow revenge so many times. It almost became a joke. When he threatened Reiner with, I'm going to kill you in the worst possible way, that ends up almost being a backdrop to another conversation. It's almost played for laughs. So bringing up that moment created a great contrast between the immature Arron and this now very matured Arron who understands the world a lot better and knows that the enemy is not always very easily defined. So this is a great example where I said there are certain themes that have been around from the beginning but get explored from another anger. And to me, anger and revenge is the theme that's been there from episode one. We started out the series reveling an Arron's vengeance. Every time he got mad and transformed, it was awesome. Now we get another one of those triumphant moments but it's not just, you don't just revel in it. Like you said, you get a little bit put off by it and you wonder what's he going to do next? So he's terrifying when he turns into that Titan at the end there. So great cliffhanger and also a different kind of cliffhanger. Usually in the series, when you get a cliffhanger, it's our protagonists are backed into a corner and it's how are they gonna get out of this one? Now the cliffhanger is, it seems like our protagonists are in control. Arron is the one in charge. So the cliffhanger is, how far is he gonna go? What's gonna happen next? And what exactly is the plan here? Along any other thoughts on this episode, where we're heading from here or anything else you didn't mention in our review? I felt like, I enjoyed the past few episodes. The confusion at the beginning was a little frustrating but I think it was all worth it and I can't wait to see where this goes now. I was getting a parasite EVE vibes during this episode. You know what I'm talking about? Yep, yep. When you have people on stage, monsters show up. Yeah. Anyways, that's it. And Boomer Cosmo in the chat, by the way, asks, where did you watch it? We have a subscription for Crunchyroll. So we can get all anime, that's, you know, when it comes out in Japan, you can see it here. So you don't have to wait for it to air on wherever it airs in America. I don't even know, because we're on Crunchyroll. So I'd recommend that. I don't really have anything to add to that. Like I said, awesome episode. I hate how short the episodes are, is I can't wait for the next one. But with that, I'll just say, if you enjoyed this video, please go ahead and hit that like button, hit the subscribe button. And of course, the bell icon, so you get notified the next time we do a video or the next time we go live. I think we'll try to go live every Sunday while the show is on. So make sure you have that bell icon checked off so you get notified and like Boomer Cosmo, like Perp Minded, like Support Gaming 2020 or John Mills, you can join the chat, be a part of the live conversation. So with that, thanks for watching and see you on the next one take.