Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapter 74--Final Boss?

Well, it was nice for the two minutes where it looked like everything might work out!

(A/N: The post deals with spoilers for the entire manga and contains some disturbing and graphic images. Please do not read unless you are caught up!)

But before the Scouts became aware of the trap, I’m glad that Eren’s new power worked as well as they’d hoped! This is also the first time the readers get to see it as well, since the big reveal a few chapters ago that Eren could even do this was shown afterwards with a Titan statue as proof. I’m still pretty curious about how this power even works in the first place, but I imagine that we’ll have to wait for Annie to return to the story before there are any answers about that.

In the meantime, I think that Armin was one of the big heroes of this chapter. His quick thinking after spotting the remains of the fire on top of the wall eventually leads to the discovery of the trap. Based on the information Armin comes up with, Erwin concludes that they haven’t surprised their enemies; in fact, they saw the Scouts coming, leaving them with plenty of time to prepare for an ambush. I hate it when my gut feeling is right…

However, I love that Armin is getting proper recognition for his strategic value! It’s been obvious to readers for a while, but Armin could only use what he’d figured out to influence those around him who trusted him—now Erwin is putting him in charge of a group of soldiers! I couldn’t help but find it adorable that Armin had no idea how to command people.

The series is in the middle of a deadly operation and I’m smiling over how cute Armin is. What has this manga done to me?

As a side note though, what was going on at that campsite on top of the wall before the Scouts showed up? Armin says that they were drinking “something that resembled tea,” and he’s not the kind of character to throw out vague details like that. My first thought was coffee, which made me wonder if coffee exists inside the walls. And if it doesn’t, where did they get it from? I don’t think that the Ape Titan is friendly enough to show up with Starbucks.

Also, Armin notes that there were three cups, and if it’s assumed that two of them were Reiner and Bertoldt, who was the third person? I’m inclined to say Ymir, since I don’t think Reiner and Bertoldt were on friendly enough terms with the Ape Titan after he knocked Reiner over to want to share some coffee. But whether or not that’s accurate, that still leaves another question—where did Ymir go?

However, Ymir is not the Scouts immediate concern although I’m sure that’s not true for their Queen—they need to figure out where Reiner and Bertoldt are hiding. During his panic, Armin brings up a good point; up until now, their enemies had more working knowledge about the Titans than the Scouts. They use that gap in the Scouts’ intelligence to stay one step ahead of them, but this time they have a piece of information that Reiner and Bertoldt don’t know they’re aware of.

The walls. The Titans in the walls were revealed back when Reiner, Bertoldt, and Ymir were still at Castle Utgard. And when they got back, Reiner and Bertoldt immediately revealed their true identities to Eren in a last ditch effort to get him to come with them instead of attempting to kidnap him. They never found out that one of their world’s biggest secrets was partially out; they were focused on retrieving the coordinate and meeting up with the Ape Titan again. Thanks to their assumption that the Scouts were still in the dark about everything relating to the Titans, Armin was able to figure out where Reiner was hiding—a spot that no one would guess unless they knew that Titans were in the wall.

R.I.P. Soldier Guy. We never learned your name.

Revealing Reiner’s hiding spot immediately results in violence—he manages to kill one soldier before Levi swoops in and stabs him through the neck and chest, but somehow Reiner was able to survive that. Just how indestructible are Titan Shifters anyway? It’s clear that Levi hit him right in the spinal cord, and that kind of injury should be an instant death for both humans and Titans. The biology of Titan Shifters must be ridiculous…

And now Levi's going to blame himself for all the casualties that come after this point

And if that wasn’t enough, another one of my predictions from the last chapter was right—the Ape Titan was hiding with an army of Titans, waiting for the right chance to strike. At first I was sure that he was aiming for the part of the wall that Eren had closed, but instead he was cutting off their escape route. He’s not wasting any time.

The last two pages of this chapter make it look like the fights will be Erwin vs. Ape Titan and Eren vs. Reiner. Eren’s really got his game face on there. He’s obviously mad, but not in his usual “charge into battle in a blind rage” mad. I think Reiner might be in for a surprise.

As for the non-Titan Shifter characters, the chapter seems to be hinting that they have a secret trump card with those weird arm bracers they started wearing. A lot of people on Tumblr pointed these out in the previous chapter, but I didn’t talk about them since they were not focused on. This month, there’s an obvious teaser image, but I’m still not sure what these things are. Are they another weapon? They look pretty similar to what Kenny’s squad wore with their hand cannons, but I’m not convinced that’s what these are just yet.

In any case, I hope that they have a good backup plan, because it looks like they’re going to need it!

Still think that joining the Scouts was a good idea?

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