As with most storms, there lay a calm before it. A moment of respite to collect one’s thoughts, batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst. Unfortunately for the members of the 104th, no amount of preparations could prepare them for the storm that is forming around them. Metaphors withstanding, this begins as a fairly tame episode in the catalogue of Attack on Titan. The fractured groups that have comprised the past few adventures have finally come together and a majority of the 104th is back together. Except Jean. Those who were trapped in Utgard Catsle inform their rescuers about Ymir, about the newly revealed Historia Reiss and the lack of any hole in the wall. Real important stuff. However, it is a little overshadowed by a hunched over Reiner, who spends a majority of this episode breaking down emotionally and mentally. Which is sad…or at least it is before the big, and oddly quiet, reveal. Since we can’t go two weeks without discovering that a character we somewhat know is actually a Titan Shifter, …

If there’s one thing to be said about perilous mountain expeditions, it’s that characters will either perish on them, or come to understand themselves, and others, on an entirely new and intrinsically true level. Yes, technically that is more than one thing, but that probably doesn’t make it any less insightful and cool sounding. Jumping back to a time and place unknown, though assumedly during the 104th’s training and somewhere on a mountain, we are given yet another glimpse into the life and times of Ymir and Krista. Left wandering during a powerful blizzard, Ymir comes to a realisation chronologically that we have already had explained by her…in the future. It is also the one thing we know about Krista and kinda makes this whole perilous flashback a whole lot less expositionally interesting. Despite her sweetness and overall cute demeanour, Krista wants to kill herself. Not in an obviously suicidal way, but in a heroic way that would see her remembered fondly. To that end, she opts to drag the half-dead body of another trainee …