Attack on Titan Chapter 130, Dawn for Humanity Review: The Devil Brings the Apocalypse.

You know, it’s funny how I keep predicting how the story of Attack on Titan will go only for the next chapter to immediately prove me wrong.
In my predictions post for Chapter 130, “Dawn for Humanity”, I predicted that Historia would not be shown again until the end of the story.
So, imagine my complete surprise and happiness when I saw a spoiler that she would appear in a flashback this chapter.
As soon as I saw that spoiler, I immediately went offline so I wouldn’t accidentally get spoiled again and could experience the chapter for myself.
And boy was it an experience.
“Dawn for Humanity” is definitely in my top 10 favourite chapters of the entire manga, which is surprising considering how short it is.
This shortness is due to the final scene of the chapter that is full of constant glorious, yet horrifying double spread panels of the Rumbling arriving and laying waste to Marley.
My jaw was on the floor throughout this entire scene, with these panels being the best artwork Hajime Isayama has ever delivered.
He certainly has come a long way from his wonky artwork at the start of the manga.
Seriously, these panels just made the Rumbling so much more horrifying, with the Colossal Titans swimming under the best ships in the world’s navy and blowing them apart with steam.
Following this, is the terrifying shot of the Titan’s silhouettes as they emerge from the ocean.
Then, as the Marleyan soldiers flee, Isayama finally gifts us with the visual we have been waiting seven chapters for, a full view of Eren’s gigantic Titan.
And it. Is. Horrifying.
My first thought when I saw Eren like this was that he looked like the devil, which may have more significance later on.
The shot of his monstrous face with a soldier yelling that it’s the Attack Titan is chilling and I cannot wait for it to be animated.
I can already imagine this epic reveal with the cry of, “Shingeki No Kyojin!” when this is adapted.
Although, I do feel sorry for the poor souls who have to animate this moment because it is going to be incredibly time consuming and difficult.
Fingers crossed that Studio Mappa can pull it off.
Another interesting feature is the strings that seem to be holding up part of Eren’s Titan form from the spine.
This makes him look kind of like a marionette, which raises questions about Isayama symbolically portraying Eren as not free.
In any case, I have absolutely no clue how the alliance can even hope to stop Eren at this point.
He is the literal devil and commands millions of Colossal Titans.
He’s practically unbeatable.
Also, there’s no longer any hope of there being a Code Geass ending, not that I wanted one.
The Rumbling has reached Marley and Eren’s genocide has begun.
There is no coming back from this.
Speaking of the alliance though, we get a brief scene of them this chapter, which has some fantastic character development for Annie.
The horrified look on her face when she realizes they can’t save Liberio, and that her father is most likely dead, is striking because it is the most emotion she has ever shown.
Her tearful confession that she doesn’t want to kill the 104th or Eren anymore is just as tragic and her deciding to leave the alliance because of these things makes me wonder what Isayama has planned for her in the future.
From here, we go into Eren’s flashbacks, before the reveal of the Rumbling, and they are filled with tonnes of interesting information.
The most important of these is obviously the Historia flashback because of its implications.
The scene between her and Eren is frustratingly vague but intentionally so.
Historia is revealed to be against Eren’s decision to destroy the world but seems to reach some kind of deal with him by deciding to have a child.
A representation of Historia’s childhood story book where Christa made a deal with the devil perhaps?
Whether this is the case or not, Historia asking Eren what he would think about her having a child practically screams to me that Eren is the father of her baby.
Not only this but when Zeke confirms that Mikasa most likely loves Eren, it is revealed that Eren is thinking of Historia in this moment.
However, despite this seeming to show Eren has a stronger connection to Historia and is most likely the father of her child, there is still evidence for the Eren and Mikasa ship.
As I said, Zeke suspects that Mikasa is in love with Eren, confirming that what Eren said about Mikasa only following him because of her Ackermann instincts is a steaming pile of Titan poop.
This most likely means that everything he told Mikasa and Armin in Chapter 112 was a lie meant to protect them by distancing themselves from him.
So, Mikasa being revealed to possibly be in love with Eren for real does raise the possibility of their ship potential.
Sure, Eren does say he doesn’t have time for anything like that because he only has four years left to live but this is back when he lied to Zeke practically every sentence so we should take what he says here with a pinch of salt.
Therefore, even though I am in favor of Eren being the father of Historia’s child because of its thematic weight, especially if the child turns out to be the reincarnation of Ymir Fritz, I can admit that there are some hints to Mikasa ending up with Eren too.
I think we can all agree though that, if any ship turns out to be canon, the last thing we want is another Tokyo Ghoul situation where people whose ship didn’t become canon send death threats to the author.
No matter what happens, lets be respectful guys.
Back to the chapter, other highlights of Eren’s flashbacks include a memory shard of the fez kid being assaulted, revealing that there will be a future flashback between Eren and him, and a flashback of Floch listening in to Eren’s conversation with Yelena.
This leads to Eren tasking Floch with pretending to support Yelena and Zeke so they can start the Rumbling and destroy the world.
What is particularly interesting about this moment is Floch’s reaction to Eren’s plan.
He looks shocked and maybe even a little horrified.
I would love to know what was going through Floch’s head at this moment.
If he does turn out to be alive then I hope we get a POV moment from him where he reflects on how he got to the cruel point he is now.
However, it is with this Floch flashback that I have to take issue because Eren describes the people he intends to kill as “animals.”
This not only makes him pretty unsympathetic but also makes no sense because he confirms he knows there are innocent people to Historia in the very next scene.
And speaking of that scene, there is another problem with the dialogue because Eren says that the Military Police plan to feed Zeke to Historia now that he is on Paradis.
Yet, going by the timeline, this conversation takes place months before Zeke arrived on the island.
All of that said though, I cannot fault the chapter for these dialogue problems because they are not Hajime Isayama’s problem but the translators’.
Not only do they make a mistake with translating in relation to the timeline but also with the “animals” line because, looking into it, I found that it wasn’t quite an accurate translation and that they most likely went overboard with it.
I hope they can do a better job with the translations next chapter.
Overall though, “Dawn for Humanity” was a phenomenal Attack on Titan chapter.
It delivered some great character development for Annie, finally brought back Historia, and gifted us with one of the most gloriously horrifying moments of the entire manga.

Attack on Titan Chapter 116 Predictions.

Chapter 115 of Attack on Titan, “Support,”was an amazing read, with many explosive reveals that will have a lasting impact on the series.
From Levi’s uncertain fate, to Zeke’s resurrection, to Pieck ambushing Eren, the chapter had many moments that left my jaw on the floor, and wondering how these storylines would continue in Chapter 116, and beyond.
So, I decided to list my theories and predictions for the upcoming chapter, and others, to see if I get any right.
Let’s get into it.

What does Yelena plan to do and how does Onyankopon factor in?

It was clear right from the moment Yelena entered the story that she was untrustworthy and Hajime Isayama has definitely followed through on making her so.
She is essentially a crazy Zeke fan girl, who believes he is a god and will follow his every command.
This has me wondering what she and the other Yeagerists have planned for the military members who drunk the wine with Zeke’s spinal fluid, including Pyxis.
The chapter ends Yelena’s scene with her declaring that Pyxis and the others must be punished for going against Zeke.
I think this punishment will be turning him, and everyone else identified by an armband as having drunk the wine, into Titans with Zeke’s scream.
These Titans will then be used in the final battle when the world commences an all out assault on Paradis.
Sadly, this means Pyxis, Nile, and every other person in the military who drank the wine will die.
However, I do not think they will go down without a fight.
Pyxis has been getting a lot of scenes with Yelena and this has me believing he will play a central role in her downfall.
Then there is Onyankopon, whose loyalties remain uncertain.
He was helping Hange in prior chapters but in “Support” he was seen working with Yelena again.
However, I believe that Isayama laid a few subtle hints in this scene that he may actually betray her.
There is a panel of him glaring at her out of the corner of his eye and, when Pyxis asks her why Yelena is thinking of saving the world rather than the island, Onyankopon questions her, showing he has not been told the full plan.
Because of all this, I think Onyankopon will begin working against her, potentially helping Pyxis and maybe even releasing Mikasa, Armin and the rest of the scouts from their prison cell.
As for what happens next, only time will tell.

What will happen to Levi and Hange?

When Chapter 115 was released and everyone thought Levi died, a thousand fans screamed out in anguish.
But, upon closer inspection, it looks like Levi actually survived the explosion.
Otherwise, Hange would not have glared at Floch when he asked to check Levi’s pulse, and she would not have taken his body when she jumped into the river.
Finally, there is Levi’s new scar.
Isayama would not go to the trouble of giving him a battle scar if he was not still alive.
So, if Levi is alive, the question is what happens to him and Hange now?
Many people have speculated about where the river will take the two and most believe they are either going to Shiganshina or Historia’s home.
It honestly could be either, or neither, at this point.
This is the one question that I do not have the slightest idea what the answer is.
Arriving in Shiganshina may seem a bit too convenient, and the reason I do not think they will end up at Historia’s ties into my next prediction.
In all honesty, I think it could be a few chapters before we figure out what happened to them.
All I can say for certain is that if Levi is going to die then Hajime Isayama will be sure to give him a meaningful, and impactful, sendoff.
The crazy fan girls would attack him if he did not.

Where are Reiner and Porco?

The reason I do not believe Levi and Hange will meet up with Historia is because I believe two other characters are going to: Reiner and Porco.
We have not seen these two since Chapter 108, and this has created much confusion when Pieck was shown on Paradis without these two with her.
Since Reiner suggested an all out assault on Paradis in 108, it would be weird if Pieck was the only one sent to the island.
So Reiner and Porco must be on an important mission there that we have not been shown yet.
And, in my opinion, this important mission is to capture Historia.
This would make sense both for practical and story reasons.
Marley’s goal is to gain the Founding Titan power but, in order to do this, they need someone with royal blood.
This would make Historia and her unborn child vitally important to Marley.
As for the story reasons, Isayama could do a lot for the narrative and character arcs by having Reiner and Porco meet Historia.
Reiner had a crush on Historia when he was pretending to be a soldier, and made a promise to Ymir that he would save her.
These factors would put Reiner at odds with his mission, and could lead to more growth from him.
Personally, though, I am much more interested in Historia meeting Porco.
Porco ate Ymir, who was very close to Historia, and now has all of her memories, which means he knows a lot about Historia.
Not only that but we have seen how memories affect Titan Shifters, like when Armin inherited Bertholdt’s memories.
So, both he and Historia could grow so much from meeting and interacting with one another.
Along with this, their meeting could hopefully lead to some more revelations about Ymir with maybe a flashback with Porco’s memories from her?
Hopefully?
In any case, I truly believe that not having Historia and Porco meet would be a massive missed opportunity.
Another thing to note is that this could finally let us know what is going on with Historia’s pregnancy.
If you have read any of my prior reviews, then you know I hate this storyline so am hoping for some kind of twist to make it better.
Maybe her meeting up with Reiner and Porco could provide this?

What is Pieck’s Plan?

After talking about Reiner and Porco, we now move on to their comrade, Pieck.
We spent five chapters wondering what she was up to after she appeared in Chapter 110, and “Support” gave us our answer.
In the cliffhanger of Chapter 115, Pieck ambushes Eren when he comes to talk to Gabi, stabbing his guard in the throat and then holding him at gunpoint.
On the surface, this seems like a stupid decision on Pieck’s part.
Her Titan is by far the weakest of the nine and Eren has three Titan powers, among them the two most powerful, the Founding and Warhammer Titan.
This puts Pieck at a huge disadvantage and, again, makes her look stupid.
But here’s the thing; Pieck is not stupid.
Isayama has shown her to be one of the smartest characters in Attack on Titan time and time again.
She managed to free herself and Porco from the hole Yelena trapped them in and, most recently, managed to sneak into Eren’s inner circle and ambush him.
Not to mention that Zeke constantly praising Pieck for her intelligence, with him proclaiming “that’s exactly right, Pieck”, has become a meme.
So, Pieck must have some sort of plan but what is it?
Coming back to my theory about Reiner and Porco going to capture Historia and her baby, this might tie into that plan.
One of Eren’s biggest motivations for turning against the military was because they planned to sacrifice Historia so he would want to protect her at all cost.
And, if the fanbase is right and Eren is the true father of Historia’s child, this would increase his desire to save her tenfold.
Therefore, maybe this is the ace up Pieck’s sleeve.
She could threaten Historia’s life if Eren does not cooperate.
Or, maybe Eren could convince Pieck to come over to his side, who knows?
Either way, if Eren kills Pieck next chapter I will be dissapointed, both because it would make Pieck look like an idiot, and because we know the least about her out of all of the warriors.
I really like Pieck as a character and what to know more about her, so maybe Chapter 116 will give us some insight into her backstory and what her true motivations are.

Who is the little girl who resurrected Zeke and what part will she play in the story?

Ymir Fritz… Seriously, who else could it be?
If the little girl who saved Zeke is anyone other than Ymir Fritz I will be shocked.
And, since Ymir Fritz has probably been introduced, then that truly shows that we are in the endgame of this story.
What I find to be the most interesting question right now is how the original Ymir will tie into this endgame?
She saved Zeke so he is obviously important to whatever her plans are.
This may make it seem like she is trying to make his euthanasia plan succeed but I think her goal is quite the opposite.
I believe she may actually be trying to make Eren’s plan come true because I am almost certain he is manipulating Zeke.
Whatever Eren’s true plan is, he needs Zeke to initiate it and Ymir Fritz saving Zeke shows she is in favor of that plan working.
Maybe she is even already in communication with Eren, since he has three of the nine Titan Shifter powers.
Whether she is or not though, I am almost certain she will play a pivotal role in the story’s conclusion.
I also have a number of theories about how she may be connected to this ending, and I believe it all comes down to Historia’s child.
If you look at Ymir Fritz, she looks almost exactly like Historia when she was a child, living on her mother’s farm.
Not only that, but she has a similar pose, holding a bucket just like Historia.
As for the baby, it would make a lot of sense for Historia to name her baby Ymir because of how much she had an influence on her life.
This would technically make this child’s name Ymir Fritz since this was Historia’s family’s original name before they changed it to Reiss.
My theory is that Historia’s child IS Ymir Fritz and that she is working through paths to ensure Eren’s plan works in the past.
Maybe the series will end with Eren sending his memories of her into the past, generating the legend about Ymir gaining her powers from the devil, which may be Eren.
Although if this theory is correct, then it does raise the plot hole of what created the Titans in the first place so I am probably wrong about this.
Still, I do not think I am wrong about Ymir Fritz playing a major role in the story’s conclusion as that is pretty much a given at this point.

So those are my predictions for Chapter 116 of Attack on Titan and beyond.
I hope you enjoyed them.
Be sure to check out my review for the chapter when it officially drops in April.

Attack on Titan: Season three, episode three, Old Story – Spoiler free and spoiler review: Backstories galore.

Spoiler Free Review:

The third episode of Attack on Titan‘s third season aired, giving us the backstory of both Historia and Erwin.
Compared to the previous two episodes of the season, this episode, Old Story, had a much slower pace because it was more character driven that action and story driven.
This is not a bad thing as the anime has been able to give us some truly fantastic character driven episodes, like season two, episode ten, Children, which is one of my favourite episodes of the series.
In comparison with these other character driven episodes, Old Story is a pretty good one that adds a lot of depth to the characters of Erwin and Historia.
Also, while I do not think this episode is as good as the first two of the season, especially episode two, I still found it be very enjoyable.
Along with delivering more background to some characters, this episode also had some revelations and made, what I can only guess to be, more hints for future reveals.
Old Story also reveals, more than any episode so far, what exactly our central characters are facing in this arc as it goes in deep with their foes’ levels of depravity.
My favourite character of the episode would have to be Erwin because, not only did he have a lot of good moments, but the reveal of his backstory also explained a lot about his character.
It also set up, what I think is going to be, a very good character arc for him this season.
Overall, Old Story was a good, if slow, episode.
It may not have had much excitement or even that great of a cliffhanger but it added complexity to more of the characters and set up future reveals.

Spoiler Review:

It seems like every character in Attack on Titan has some kind of traumatic past.
Eren, Mikasa, Ymir, and now Erwin and Historia.
The reveal of both of these characters’ backstories was really well done and both gave a great sense of their characters.
Historia’s was especially tragic because it showed how cruel her mother was to her as she even went as far to want her dead but, thankfully, did not have the “courage” to do so.
It could just be that Historia’s mother was a terrible person, but it seemed to me that, for some reason, she actually feared her daughter so, if that is the case, it will be interesting to see why later.
Even if she did fear Historia though, I still see this as no excuse of her treatment of her.
Historia is freaking adorable in these flashbacks and anyone that would shove a kid, let alone their own, for trying to give them a hug is cruel.
Historia’s past got weirder as it went on as well.
The day after Wall Maria fell, Rod Reiss came to get her, only for Kenny and the Military Police to arrive and murder Historia’s mother right in front of her.
What makes this scene especially strange is that it raises numerous questions.
Why did they want to kill Historia and her mother, why did Historia’s mother refer to Rod as “master”, why did Rod suddenly decide to allow Historia to be spared so long as she lived under a fake name?
I am sure all of these questions will be explained and I am eager to hear those explanations.
As for Erwin’s backstory, this gave me an even bigger sense of who he is because it is revealed he blames himself for his father’s death.
His father was a teacher who told Erwin that he thought the government was lying about history.
Erwin told his friends and the Military Police found out and so it ended with Erwin’s father being murdered.
This inspired Erwin to prove his father’s theory correct and it looks like that will be his main goal in the Uprising Arc.
He also had a really great scene, where he vowed to avenge Dimo Reeves, whose murder he has been framed for.
One thing that does have me concerned though is that Erwin tells Hange she will be in charge of the Survey Corps if he dies.
Hopefully this is not foreshadowing his death any time soon but this is Attack on Titan so you never know.
Then there is the revelation that in order to become a Titan Shifter you need to eat one.
I already knew this because it had basically been confirmed with the episode Children and it just needed to be stated by the characters.
However, all this being said, I did find a bit of a plot hole in this episode and this is what they did with the captive Djel Sannes and his buddy Ralph.
They locked them up in a cell but left no one to guard them.
If the two of them just happened to break out then Rod would know everything Sannes told Hange.
The ending cliffhanger also was not that interesting but the only reason I have a problem with that is probably because of how good the previous two were.
Old Story left me with a lot of questions, especially surrounding Historia, that I hope will be answered in the next few episodes.

Predictions:

In the preview for next episode it looks like the Military Police Officer that is sneaking up on the group is actually Marlow, Annie’s friend from when she was with the MP. You can see him being threatened by Jean, and Levi talking to him. I think he could be pretty important going forward since he joined the Military Police to try and fix it. If this is him, hopefully his story here will make me like him more because I do not really care for him at this stage.
Dimo Reeves’ son Flegel saw Kenny murder his father so could be the key to proving Erwin innocent. He also must have heard Kenny refer to Levi as an “Ackerman” so he will be probably be the one to drop the bombshell that Levi and Mikasa are related. We can see him being captured by the Military Police in the preview but it also looks like he will be saved by Hange and Moblit.
With the confirmation that you now need to eat a Titan Shifter to become one it looks like my grim theory about how Eren became a Titan is correct. Once again, I will not say it because I do not want to potentially spoil you, but I do think it will be revealed soon. Unless of course I am completely wrong about this.
Kenny is certainly living up to his serial killer nickname of “The Ripper”. Forget Levi, I think this guy has the highest kill count out of any character. He has probably murdered hundreds of people and I do not expect him to stop here. I dread to see what he will do next.