Attack On Titan: Assassins’ Bullet
Season 4 Episode 8 Review: The cost of war is profoundly measured as both sides taste defeat
Score one for the boy’s back home! A really heartbreaking episode here, as it looks like the scouts take a major loss with the death of Sasha Braus. Starting off this episode, we have Reiner finally waking up from the cries for help from Gabi and Falco and engaging in battle with his armored titan, or maybe half-armored. His titan form is different from his other transformations, most likely because he has lost his will to live. No fear, the screams are here! With the help of his young comrades, Reiner snaps out of it and attempts to engage Eren Yaeger’s now attack-founder-warhammer titan.
It didn’t take much for Eren to put him right back down with a single blow to the face, crushing his armor-less jaw. Meanwhile, we have the scouts falling back, or should I say up, now into a airship high above the battleground. Jean is leading the scouts back to safety, as Eren and Mikasa leaves Reiner in his own puddle of despair to retreat as well. It seems like he got what he came for. We then switch from the scouts perspective back to Marley, as Gabi and Falco look on from what looks like an abandoned building. The Marley soldiers can only watch as the scouts, for the first time in our viewing, brought the fight to the enemy. This tell of perspective is something to reflect on. Through the entire series of AOT, the scouts’ back was always against the wall, they always had to fight because they had no other choice. Always on the run, scratching just to survive, the characters we’ve become accustomed to were the prey, to the point were we, as the viewers, gained a huge amount of sympathy for them and shuttered at just the smallest glimpse of hope they had in their world when it came to getting an edge on the enemy. Witnessing Jean, Sasha, Connie, Eren, Mikasa, and Levi, along with the rest of the survey core bringing the big fight to their enemies, and coming out on top in this manner, is something new to the viewers eyes, and I can tell you now, it feels damn good! So cheers for these guys, after all they’ve been through. I am not suggesting that war and the mass killing of people is just, however you have to take into consideration the severity the scouts are in at this point. I’m sure I speak for much of us in the AOT community that seeing this gave me a sense of relief for the islanders.
Moving on, we have Gabi grabbing a rifle and running after the blimp the scouts are using to retreat with nothing but anger and despair filling her soul. Falco follows in an attempt to try to stop her. Something tells me these two are going to be connected through the rest of the season. We then see both candidates in an alley as Falco gets a hold of Gabi and tries to talk some sense into her stubborn head. However, much like Eren back when he was younger and a loose canon, Gabi cannot understand why her hometown is being destroyed. I loved the dialogue from these two, and I also love the parallels young Eren and Gabi has. It really hits home because when I first started watching AOT, I see the same turmoil young Eren was going through, in Gabi. She cannot understand why her town, her people, the ones she grew up to know and love, are suffering at the hands of the enemy. As she’s vents to Falco, he remembers some of the conversation Eren and Reiner were having in the basement before everything went down. He remembers Eren asking Reiner why his mom got eaten by a titan. Then he remembers Eren saying that he’s the same as Reiner right when Gabi was spewing the typical Marley propaganda “Eldians are spawn of the devils” “they’re not like us”. This struck a cord with me because Falco is now facing the reality that everything is not what it seems. Much of the people in Marley have yet to see, in action, the people on the island as “devils”. This is what was indoctrinated in them to believe, however Falco was there when Eren was telling his story to Reiner. We’ll have to see how Falco changes throughout the rest of the season knowing this. Gabi continues on as she chases the blimp down gun in hand, enraged.
We jump back to the scouts as they’re in the process of recovering everyone post battle. They’re going back to the island. Jean gives the orders to a cadet to make sure everyone gets back on board safe. Once Eren and Mikasa boards, they are met with Commander Levi, and boy, just like back in season two, he damn near kicks Eren’s head off. This is what you get for dragging us in all of your mess! Remember, this was not the initial plan for the soldiers, they were pushed into this battle because Eren had other plans. Levi notices that Eren’s demeanor is similar to his and others who lived back at the underground; dead-eyed without any care in the world. I think this speaks volumes for Eren’s development as a character. The guy has literally been through so much, not to mention he is filled with past titan shifters’ memories.
As the survey core celebrated their victory, Jean asks when is the fighting going to stop. Never fear, Connie and Sasha are here to keep Jean sane. Although Jean’s questioning is very understandable, you got to lighten up man. You guys tasted defeat, let that sink in even for a couple of seconds. Outside the airship, As a soldier from the survey core attempts to survey the area, I assume to make sure there’s no one being left behind, he notices a young girl appear from behind a building. Before he can react, she shoots him down from his vertical maneuvering gear. Gabi has taken down a member of the survey core. She notices the line form the soldiers gun was still connected to the blimp, and attempts to take it to board the airship. Falco catches up to her and she says her goodbyes. At the same time, Colt, Falco’s older brother, catches up and tries to lead them back his way. However Gabi figures out how to use the gun and fires the string pulling them into the air. Falco grabs on and up they go.
Next up, the tearjerker right here. Sasha suggests she heard a thump on the airship, and Connie then askes did one of their squad teams ever make it back. Boom! Gabi, gun in hand rushes in the airship and shoots piercing Sasha through her stomach. It was as if the whole world stopped on that ship. Sasha collapses, and Gabi lets off another round, however the bullet goes haywire due to Falco tackling her right when she was aiming for Jean. The rest of the soldiers on the ship rush the kids and literally kick their asses, with stomps, kicks, and punches. This moment was very intense; on one hand these kids are getting beaten to a bloody pulp, and on another, Sasha is laying in a pool of her own blood because of them, well Gabi. Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Jean and Connie are trying to keep the blood from running by bandaging Sasha up, but to no avail. All seems hopeless for our potato girl as she lays there dead-eyed slurring words of hunger. I felt like I was in the airship for a moment.
We jump back to Marley’s commander McGath and an injured pieck talking. McGath brings up Falco and Gabi missing, while Pieck mentions how the Marley soldier that trapped her and Porco before the battle resembled someone on the front lines back when Reiner returned to Marley. You got to give it to pieck, she definitely has a good nose in sniffing something out. We jump back to the airship where Falco and Gabi are restrained. Some of the soldiers wanted to throw them over board, but Jean again is questioning how much more of this war are they going to have to go through. Just a reminder that the character development in the world of AOT is absolutely amazing. If there is one thing I love in a story, its how someone has changed overtime. Even though Jean has evolved tremendously since we’ve first met him, he is still battling his moral as he constantly forced to attain victory and freedom for his people at the expense of others’ lives. A sense of realism, a recurring theme in their world. Not everyone can cope with knowing they murdered innocent civilians. Hang in there Jean!
As they try to keep Sasha alive, Gabi is spewing more Marley propaganda, like seriously, she does not stop. She says that she and her people will carry out their mission till the end, and Zeke’s will would be continued by the ‘true’ eldians. Jean, tempering himself insists Gabi tells that same thing to Zeke herself, and brings the young candidates to a room where Zeke sits by Eren as he’s regenerating his limbs. Zeke questions what the two are doing here, and Commander Hange enters the room to ask Zeke if everything went smoothly. To Gabi and Falco’s horrifying surprise, Zeke answers yes but with some miscalculations, being the two candidates. You can only imagine what those two had going on in their mind, oh the confusion of these brainwashed kids.
Connie enters the room with tears strolling down his eyes and confirms that Sasha is dead. It was as if I could feel the energy from everyone in the airship sinking to the bottom. Eren asks if she had any last words, Connie tells him her last word was ‘meat’, triggering Eren’s emotions. Knowing Eren as a character, one can only reflect in this moment the incredible amount of guilt and despair that he must be feeling. Flashbacks ring through as he thinks about the potato loving survey core member we’ve grown to love over the years. I felt more for Eren than for anyone else in this moment because Eren has lost many of his comrades over the years, and he’s always blamed himself for being the reason why. Guilt is a mother fu**ker, and it is not a good feeling. Jean echoes to Eren what he already knows deep down inside, he’s the reason another comrade had to die.
[[NOTE]]: Please feel free to expound on this article as I will be trying to do this on a regular basis. I intend to start my own YouTube channel making these articles into videos. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
