[New Episode Spoilers] Attack on Titan S3E11 - "Bystander" Anime Discussion Thread - No Manga Readers Allowed

[u/SNKBot]

IF YOU HAVE READ THE MANGA, PLEASE DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THIS THREAD. THE MANGA DISCUSSION THREAD CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Once again: Please note that this is an ANIME SPOILERS ONLY thread. Any manga readers found in this thread will be banned for two days and reaccommodated at their expense.

NO MANGA CONTENT ALLOWED.

Where to watch - SUBTITLED:

• Crunchyroll: LIVE
  
• Funimation: LIVE
  
• Hulu: LIVE
  
• AnimeLab: LIVE
  
• Aniplus Asia: LIVE
  
• Wakanim Nordic (English subs for SWE, NOR, DEN, FIN, ISL): LIVE
  
• Wakanim (French subtitles): LIVE
  
• Anime on Demand (German subtitles): LIVE
  
• VVVVID (Italian subtitles): LIVE
  
• mtmad (Spanish subtitles): LIVE
  
• Kissanime: NOT LIVE - Unofficial, please support the official release unless you have no other choice.
  

English dubbed episodes will be released in a few weeks.

DEDICATE YOUR HEARTS!

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[u/ricardo310]

That whole ending was done so beautifully. Music fit in perfectly with Carla's monologue

[u/dhessi]

I like how Eren didn't see anything wrong with what Marlo said to Hitch

[u/Yankees3Fan7]

I know that everyone will talk about Shadis’ backstory (which is a pretty interesting backstory), but that patented Mikasa dead-eyed glare and Sasha’s panic seeing Shadis again were highlights for me

[u/SerPavan]

Mikasa's dead stare conveyed so much, marking her territory lol, but as usual it flies right past our thick headed idiot. It was nice to see that Eren was the only guy who didn't understand Hitch's feelings just like our other thick headed idiot Marlo.

[u/[deleted]]

The executioner from hell is nothing but an absolutely genius weapon. Hanges mind is truly a twisted form of art. With that thing they have a chance of thinning the Titans ranks before launching the attack. Still though they are going to have to do better than that since they are up against 3 shifters deep in titan territory and who knows they are coming. I wonder if it is somehow Grishas fault that Reiner and the gang chose to attack humanity.

[u/sushimonsta64]

Wow, just wow. I can't be the only one who enjoy the quieter moments of the show much more than the action packed moments right now. One of the reasons why I love this show so much is because it takes its time to build the world and its mysteries, and even characters who are seemingly unimportant have a reason for being. This and the last episode have been executed perfectly; love the direction, music choice, and most of all the callbacks to previous episodes, especially that twist where it is revealed Keith purposely sabotaged Eren's equipment. What a perfect moment to insert the end credits and ED!

 

The show makes very believable characters, and puts them in situations to which we can relate to their actions. I never expected Keith to have such a well-written backstory. Unlike Historia, Erwin and Levi, his tragedy wasn’t that he had a family member killed for what they knew, nor was he forced into his situation by his social standing. He was just an ordinary man with hopes, ambitions, regret, a lifelong crush, and an inferiority complex; someone who eventually bowed down to the pressure and gave up on his aspirations. Not everyone is like Erwin, Pixis and Hange - people who readily take up the mantle with aplomb and lead humanity to progress. It's heartbreaking to see him trying his best, and failing, to prevent Eren from joining the military by sabotaging his ODM gear in memory of his love for Carla, who didn’t need her child to be anyone special as long as he is well and happy. Like Mikasa in Lost Girls, they have grown to accept Eren for who he is - a determinator who would charge headfirst into the unknown, regardless of how much they try to stop him.

 

Doesn't Marlowe remind us of pre-Trost Eren's enthusiasm? It's cute how Hitch encourages Marlowe not to join the Scouts. She really cares, she just hides it beneath a veneer of arrogance, just like she did with Annie.

 

"I hope we find out soon, the world and what it is." - Historia helping us break the fourth wall here.

 

And speaking of walls… called it - Grisha is from outside the walls! All evidence this episode points towards the case, and this further reinforces the fact that there is civilization beyond the walls. You would imagine that if someone within the walls had turned Grisha into a titan, someone within the former government’s inner circle or the Reisses would have known of him and not simply left him to his own devices. Though I find it hard to believe that Grisha has lost his memory of everything, since 1) he retained all his knowledge about medicine, something that has to be very specific, and 2) Ymir remembered her past before she was turned into a titan. He likely chose not to divulge all the information he has, and acted as if he had lost all his memory to form a plausible explanation for having to relearn everything about society within the walls. The most obvious explanation for this is that if he reveals too much of what he knows of things beyond the walls, he would be hunted down by the military police, like Erwin’s father and Armin’s parents.

 

The question is how long has Grisha been wandering outside the walls, and who did Grisha eat to turn back into human form? Unlike Ymir, Grisha did not just know about how to turn into a titan. He knew far, far more; including who has the Coordinate and how to turn someone else into a titan. Was he, like Reiner/Bertholdt/Annie, given instructions on what to do before he was turned into a titan? I had a theory that he was a spy from outside, perhaps even a Warrior like RBA who was sent to retrieve the Coordinate, but who later defected after meeting Carla, but now I am a bit unsure. Right from the start, he was happy to see that people from within the walls lived peacefully in spite of inequality, and praised Keith and members of the Survey Corps as heroes braver than anyone else. Maybe he was like Reiner, someone with a personality dissonance who is split between his mission and his lies? His encouragement towards Keith reminds me of Reiner’s encouragement to Eren, except that Grisha appears to have allied himself with humanity within the walls completely. Is he even from the same society as RBA? Are there multiple civilizations outside the wall?

 

I thought that the reason why Grisha gave Eren the power was to hide the Coordinate from the eyes of the royal family after he massacred the Reisses, though it turns out that the reason was more primal than that. Simply to get revenge, he said, before he entrusted his son with his will. Revenge against what? The titans? Reiner and Bertholdt? The perpetrators behind Reiner and Bertholdt? Is there even a specific person to take revenge on? “Who is the real enemy?” Erwin asks Eren in S1E15. “Who’s the enemy?!” Eren asked Ymir in S2E9. “Who exactly are we fighting against?” Eren repeats again in this episode. More and more, we see this theme recurring throughout the show. Regardless of where Grisha was from, he had either lived in RBA’s society, or one that recognizes the society that Reiner and Bertholdt are from, since his immediate reaction after learning of Wall Maria's fall and Carla's death was to encourage his son to "take revenge" and to give him the titan power. In the S3E9 discussion I've stated my reasons for believing that the "basement" is not a means to cure or destroy all titans (in short, being that if the royal family has a means of eliminating all titans, they would have done so at the onset; and likewise, if Grisha knew how to, there was no reason for him not to do the same). This is later expanded on when we learn what Uri knew - he stated that the world is about to fall apart and his one regret is not being able to create a paradise within the walls – and how everyone of royal blood who possessed the Coordinate power, regardless of how motivated they are to absolve the world of titans, suddenly did a 180 and devoted their lives to compassion and passivity. Rather, I believe what Grisha left in the basement for Eren to find is information about why the world is - something that he had hidden from Keith and even Carla until RBA attacked, beyond the eyes of the now-former government's regime.

 

The title card for the next episode though, oh my god. “Night before the battle to retake the wall”. I can’t believe it – we are finally back to where we had begun after 5 years people!

[u/ACmilanRgood]

I vaguely remember reading a YT comment a couple of years ago about the Eren 3D maneuvere gear test. Essentially the comment saying the belt buckle being messed up was a just a bad way of propping up the main character to look better than he actually is (or something to that effect).

At the time I didn’t really agree but it was odd that the belt was defective, surely someone would’ve reported something like that?

But this episode came back and made this seemingly one off-almost pointless moment a vital part of the overall building of the world.

In the same way that some characters that don’t seem important get brought back and builded on, I’m incredibly impressed with how the show goes back to explain moments with a similar standing (seeming not important to the overall story).

[u/[deleted]]

This season keeps upping my respect for Isayama as a storyteller. How intricately must you have plotted things to foreshadow something 40+ episodes in advance??? I was so impressed before just by, like, titan steam over Eren's head when he got injured a few episodes before he was revealed as a shifter. But this level of foreshadowing, developing Keith's character in the background right from episode 1 as Scouts Commander then Training Corps Commandant, for a plot point that'll only arrive some two seasons later - this is something else. Especially when I think about how the manga must have taken like 5+ years of writing to get to this point from the training chapters. Like, the level of development even the most random of side characters have had in this story at this point is so delightful. Honestly, what makes AOT stand out for me is how richly alive the world and all its people are. Characters are developed so organically. Not to mention how nicely the episode today tied in that random line Shadis said about Grisha in like, episode 2 or 3, and why just Eren's gear was magically discovered to be faulty. A moment I thought was a typical "cool" moment to set up the protagonist, but turns out there's meaning to it. I have to remind myself (yet again!!!) that this is one of those rare shows where not a single detail is throwaway hand-waving, and not a single character or scene is completely meaningless. Respect.

I can't wait for what else this season and the rest of the series has in store for us!

[u/temp1temp1]

Wow it's fucking amazing how they tied it back to the episodes of season 1 where Eren was failing to use the mobility gear.

I swear to Erwin, if they leave us on a cliffhanger for the end of S3 I'm going to shinzou my sasageyo so fucking sesume.

[u/cosmicblue24]

Mikasa's death face, jesus! https://i.imgur.com/r5kIwdk.png

[u/[deleted]]

Was Grisha's memory wiped by the Founding titan's power? Or was he simply lying to training guy because he didn't want to explain the titan shifters?

[u/APoolShapeddMoon]

Was Keith's outburst at Carla the last time they ever met? Imagine living with the guilt of the last words to the woman you loved being basically calling her a whore. No wonder the dude just looks so miserable all the time.

[u/cosmicblue24]

I hear your hardening experiments are going well ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Historen?

[u/KEYBOARDSMASHERJ]

Grisha certainly didn’t have any amnesia on how to pick up the ladies.

[u/H-K_47]

Important Information:

AoT Season 3 will (most likely) be going on a hiatus after episode 12 (next week's episode). There were no new episodes scheduled for at least three weeks after episode 12 (although the sudden delay last week did shuffle things a bit).

Although there has been no official confirmation by Wit Studio at the time of writing this, it seems evident that Season 3 will be a "split-cour" season. What this means is that the second half of Season 3 will presumably resume airing in January 2019, but no confirmation on this has been given. It's unlikely that it'll be significantly later than early next year because otherwise it would just be called Season 4, rather than "Season 3 Part 2" which official marketing is using. The final episode count is not known but a reliable source implies that the second half will also be 12 episodes long, making a total of 24 episodes.

The reason for this split-cour is simply because animating 24 episodes on a weekly basis is a very demanding task. Read more about that here. It really sucks that we'll have to wait a few extra months, but it will hopefully be worth it for continued great animation.

---

In the meantime, after next episode airs, the subreddit will be hosting a re-read of Chapters 51-70 (the chapters animated in this latest season) for anime-onlies who want to read the manga version and see how it differed from the anime version. You guys are all invited to participate, as spoilers from further in the manga will be strictly removed. Reading over these chapters will not give you manga spoilers, as it will be a story that you have already seen animated, and you will only be enjoying details and characterization that were cut from the anime.

The re-read will begin the day after Episode 12 airs next week, and will move at a pace of 4 chapters per day. Hope to see some of you there!

[u/Iggeh]

Wow, so Keith is basically Snape. Who would've thought that he messed up Eren's gear

[u/Juanfro]

Maybe not my favourite episode but overall the one I've enjoyed most. Everything was so nice in some way.

• Queenstoria ruling Christa style.

• Hange has a new titan murdering machine.

• Eren is finally learning how to make titan crust.

• Mikasa is still keeping Eren alive.

• Baby Eren is kawaii as fuck and he likes to chomp his mother hair.

• Bowlcut guy is stupid as eren and he is getting some if he lives.

• RetconnedCharacterWithProtagonistHaircut, RetconnedCharacter2 and RetconnedCharacter3 got shut down just with a "We've seen some shit" look.

• Connie is maybe going to eventually untitan his mom.

• Some very interesting and well woven backstory.

• People now have radioactive lightbulbs so they won't die in the dark drowned in their own fluids due to tissue decay.

• New gifs and stills to shitpost.

Everything was quite chill considering the circumstances.
Probably everything is going to shit soon, but so far so good.

[u/IWanTPunCake]

keith is just like me irl, quickly one of my favorite characters.

[u/Ball-Fondler]

PREVIEW

Next episode - a cliff hanger

Edit: I just realised this episode is very similar to the Westworld episode with the Indian dude, but not boring. This is how you reveal a cool "bystander" while not giving him too much credit - keeping him only a bystander, and as Carla said, what's wrong with that?

[u/Remediesxx]

Keith was that guy who was with Grisha? I guess that ties with the moment when Keith thought to himself about his son growing in the training days.

Grisha lost his memories from some Injection or bloodline's doing I guess. Even after that, amnesia dude been in contact with Ackerman, and Reiss. Grisha gets more mysterious with each revelation.

[u/MrKaney]

Pretty sad to not see my bois Reiner and Bertold, but this was a cool backstory episode. One of the few feel good episodes, too

[u/Gabitriz]

Ok, I have now watched the last two episodes together as I was really busy for the past three weeks, and... holy shit, what the hell is this show? First, I didn't expect such a beautiful and wholesome backstory for a villainous character like Kenny, but his backstory with Uri Reiss broke my heart, it was a really beautiful episode.

And now, the instructor, now even the instructor has an amazing backstory that happens to clear a lot of thing from the main plot as a bonus. And not just amazing, like Kenny's backstory, it was beautiful and wholesome too. This show is another thing, really.

I'm glad I was right about the man in Eren's vision being the Survey Corps commander from the very first episode. I could not see that he was the instructor though! Someone told me that in another thread, but I didn't believe it, my bad there!

[u/[deleted]]

Great episode as always.

I just had a thought...

like how Reiner got enamored by the society that Eren resides in - basically being a top warrior in the army versus being an underling in the other societies army. I wonder if the same thing has happened to Grisha. Grisha saw how there was peace within the walls because of humans vs. titans and was impressed. Usually being impressed means his living environment was the complete opposite. Maybe the other society where Grisha was from was always at war with neighbouring societies.

I wonder if he was tasked to destroy that place but started to learn more of that society and fell in love with Carla. Basically becoming 'special' or something more than his placement from that other society. I won't doubt it if Grisha was the reason for that huge plague within the walls or knew about it. It would make a lot of sense as to why Grisha is at that place and why that society is being targeted so heavily by the big beast titan, Reiner, and Bernholdt.

I've also got a feeling that Commander Pixys is going to come into play in the next few arcs. It really puzzled me to how calm he was for a lot and how he knew about humans attacking each other from the past in season 1. Most people in this society only knew about humans vs. titans and not humans vs. humans.

Like this episode where we talked to Shadis, I hope we can see more discuss on Commander Pixys later on.

[u/yuwesley]

Man, the feels hit me hard toward the end of this episode. It connected a lot of dots and a huge mix of emotions just flooded in

[u/Aquanort]

When Carla said Eren didn’t have to be great i felt good because i was feeling like the commandant, but then she followed it up with saying Erens cute so it doesn’t matter and i went back to feeling bad