I wish the show would give us more non-action, character-focused episodes like this one. Loved it.
18 Reviews
Beautiful episode
lloyd_imdb8 October 2018
Beautiful...just sheer perfection!
ikshulnew27 March 2020
The first mystery of the series is cleared from such a unique perspective, adding on to the general theme of all great anime (looking at you-Naruto Shippuden) that any person has so many layers and inside each one is such a warm heartfelt and sad history. This episode is one of those that took AOT to legend status (akin to Can't look into his eyes yet, The Defeated, Senshi among other lovely ones )and way further than just a violent saga!
Heartwarming
walter-082241 January 2021
This was a very special episode. One of the AOT's many mysteries is Grisha Yeager, and this episode gave us some insight into his backstory. Nice throwbacks to previous episodes, and everything with Shadis and Carla was wonderful. The ending of the episode with Carla talking about Eren being special and Eren reflecting upon himself was very emotional. Storytelling like this is what elevates a show to being legendary.
Touching
lojain-shaheen27 November 2020
The best emotion one can hope for
flyingmorningdew2 July 2019
This is one of the best episode from this most epic series of all time. I for one struggle to become the special one, trying to contract my acts, my deeds, and emotions from people around me. Such urgency is deeply rooted from the pressing hope from my parents since I was a kid. That is when I become something that is not myself, something modeled after hopes and dreams of other people. (back to the episode) When carla responded to the former commander's rant by that simple question, that melts everything, the whole wall of fake and unreal-ism just crumpling down, by the simple, pure love of a mother.
If you follow eren's journey from the 1st 3 seasons, knowing Carla and knowing her story, the wave of feeling is simple too strong to resist, too real to not to be touched. It gives a glimpse of light from the dark, seemingly tragic past for the story.
Kudo to the producer, director and manga writers of the AOT. Masterpiece of an era. Thank you !!!
Best Episode.
sirazzsadiaa23 July 2020
This is the best episode of my life . I have never cried while watching a anime series or episode, but, for the first time in my life I have cried while watching a anime episode. It is that episode. This is a best episode and very emotional. It is great. 👌👌👏👏👏
Another fantastic depiction of past events. What a Masterpiece !!
saadi-4242220 June 2021
This episode once again lives on the potential of masterfully portraying past events and how they influence the present situations and characters now. I love how each and every side character has a small, yet important role to contribute to the bigger plot, something which even some famous, series like GOT fail to accomplish. I am madly in love with Hange and her wholesome craziness and Eren's character development has been also magnificent lately. The ending sequence was just beautiful af. 15/10.
This episode clears the most important mystery since the beginning.
oskarinikkinen14 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The question in most watchers minds is: What the hell happened to Grisha Yeager, Erens father after he went out of town and was not seen after the breaking of wall Maria.
The truth is however bittersweet, if even that. I would say its just sad, which fits the show where absolutely nothing has ever gone right.
This episode is phenomenal with its ending where carla says Eren is already special because he was born into this world. Excellent closure to a key problem in the series and before the major battle that is to occur.
The truth is however bittersweet, if even that. I would say its just sad, which fits the show where absolutely nothing has ever gone right.
This episode is phenomenal with its ending where carla says Eren is already special because he was born into this world. Excellent closure to a key problem in the series and before the major battle that is to occur.
"Because he was born into this world"
arguewithurdad24 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It's truly incredible how Hajime Isayama can take side characters that you never thought much about like Keith Shadis and Carla Jaeger, and elevate them. He consistently does this too. And Carla saying the line that essentially motivates our protagonist to go to hell and back for his goals makes her much more than the Anime Mom That Died. Recontextualizing certain events like the Fall of Wall Maria and tying them into Grisha's backstory makes us appreciate and understand the weight of the narrative even more. Thank you Isayama. Peak fiction :}.
Scene made me cry
lik66328 March 2021
This scene is so incredibly underrated and it was my favorite ep of season 3. The message is so beautiful - Keith really gave Eren the confidence boost he needed. I got goosebumps when the music started and when it climaxed during the revelation of why Eren's gear was defective.
Best episode from s3
rathodshubham-3008618 April 2021
It's the vest episode from season 3 from me. The emotional aspect and the back story of Jaeger (yaeger) family with the current occurring events and the impact of those this things on eren. It's just so amazing for me.
Oh Eren....
kellykat-3377119 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I love when the "chosen one" main character has to struggle with the fact that maybe they aren't special. I've liked Eren since the beginning, when I first watched this show in 2014, and to see how far he's come and how much he's grown as a person... it brought tears to my eyes. Those simple words spoken by his mother while holding innocent, baby Eren, while we see grown Eren ride off on his horse, finally feeling self-assured for the first time in a while... beautiful. The kids really been through a lot and I hope things go his way.
Emotional episode involving Gresha Yaeger
TheFirst017 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Although this episode's backstory is from Keith's point of view, the emotional core comes through the Yaeger family whose predicaments about who is fit to have a certain role applies to anything. I think the Yaeger family helped Keith a lot, that although he didn't realize it at the moment, he felt like he owed it to the Yaeger family by saving Eren from the thunder aftermath. In conclusion, this was one of the best flashback episodes because of all the emotional moments. Not that AOT has lacked them, cause mostly all of them are great and they give the characters a sense of depth that accounts for episode rewatchability.
Devastatingly Beautiful
liammc-7327427 June 2022
Of all the profound thematic material explored in this first part of season 3, what we see emphasized here is undoubtedly the most potent in my opinion. After an introduction where we see Historia adopting a matriarchal role of her own volition, and Eren gloomily accepting his own role as a simple cog in a machine to help discover the truth of humanity, we arrive at Commandant Sadies. Through a recently uncovered memory, Eren realizes that Sadies might be able to shed some light on his father's motives and actions.
We watch as the commandant recounts his life as a scout and his relationship with the Jaegers. After seeing him as a pillar of strength and discipline early in the first season, it's startling to see the jealous and petty underbelly of his personality. His journey from prideful hubris to a demoralized husk of his former self mirrors what we've seen Eren go through. However, he leaves Eren with a message from his departed mother that shifts his entire frame of mind. After receiving scathing insults from a broken Sadies returning from another failed expedition, Carla responds calmly with an impossibly pure and profoundly important thought: no one has to be innately special or talented to lead a purposeful life. It's so poignant and relevant not only only to Eren as a character but the story as a whole, and I just melt every time the ED begins to play underneath this beautiful expression of a mother's love.
Sadies' perspective fills in spots in our timeline and poses even more questions about Grisha's past and the world outside the walls. While there are many episodes that can be considered masterpieces in this first part of season 3, this one will always hold a special place in my heart.
We watch as the commandant recounts his life as a scout and his relationship with the Jaegers. After seeing him as a pillar of strength and discipline early in the first season, it's startling to see the jealous and petty underbelly of his personality. His journey from prideful hubris to a demoralized husk of his former self mirrors what we've seen Eren go through. However, he leaves Eren with a message from his departed mother that shifts his entire frame of mind. After receiving scathing insults from a broken Sadies returning from another failed expedition, Carla responds calmly with an impossibly pure and profoundly important thought: no one has to be innately special or talented to lead a purposeful life. It's so poignant and relevant not only only to Eren as a character but the story as a whole, and I just melt every time the ED begins to play underneath this beautiful expression of a mother's love.
Sadies' perspective fills in spots in our timeline and poses even more questions about Grisha's past and the world outside the walls. While there are many episodes that can be considered masterpieces in this first part of season 3, this one will always hold a special place in my heart.
This episode made me want to write reviews
javiersilva-6169610 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
How to break the 4th wall without breaking the 4th wall; this is an episode about secondary/extra characters in anime and it works like you would not believe, both in the show and outside of it. This is not just the best episode in S3P1, nor one of the greatest episodes in anime. This is a life lesson.
The episode actually starts pretty mild, we are in the aftermaths of, what I like to call, the political/conspiracy arc. Things are settling down, so it is a run of the mill episode for the first half, but boy does it pick it up on the second half...
Learning that the random soldier seen in Eren's visions/Grisha's memories is none other than Keith Shadis, the commander in charge of training our heroes all the way back in epsiode 3, blew my mind. This is the power of SnK, to bring back a character that in other anime would just be a trope. One cannot overstate his impact in the story. To say that the events of the first 3 seasons SnK would not have happened (or at least in the way they happened) without him is barely an exageration, even if it is unbeknown to Shadis himself.
We get some backstory of Grisha, though it comes (no surprises here) with more questions than answers. I've read some interesting theories about his memory loss, like the Founding Titan wiping his memory or he eating a previous Attack Titan holder. We get gems like Grisha saving the town from an epidemic. Remember Hannes mentioning that all the way back in episode 1? Again, in other shows this could mean nothing, but in this one there's actually good compelling reasons for this event, foreshadowing reveals in the future. Point taken, it'd have been impossible to guess, but everything is more beautiful in hindsight.
Another gem is the scene from episode 1, that of the Scouts returning from an expedition. That heartbreaking scene had Shadis as protagonist, yet again Isayama's giving us everything on a silver platter yet we can't see it. Another example of this is Shadis inner monologue towards the end of episode 3, when he mentions Grisha. Whatever thought we may had have about that (at that time, probably nothing spectacular) gets buried below season 1 crazyness which comes swiftly after. We also get Eren's transformation and eating of his dad, from Grishas point of view.
We haven't even touched the ''main'' theme of this episode; Shadis tragic and sad underachieving life. He loses the girl he likes, he fails at his job of Scouts commander and realizes he doesn't amount to be someone special. There are ''special people'' in this world (cue image of Erwin, Levi and Co), he just wasn't one of them. A direct shout out to storytelling itself.
We end on one of the most emotional/heartwarming endings in AoT, as the credits and ending song play while the episode itself is ending (loved this) and Carla delivers an incredible life lesson. ''Is it wrong not to be special?'' ''He (Eren) doesn't have to be better than anyone else (...), he's already special beacuse he was born into this world.''
Oh yeah, remember how Eren's equipment was faulty? That was Keith, trying to fulfill Carla's wish of protecting Eren. Mind=blown. This episode is such a huge callback to things many years ago both irl and in the show. But Alas, Eren's will cannot be tamed, Keith gives in. He can't do nothing about it. ''I am a mere bystander''.
The episode actually starts pretty mild, we are in the aftermaths of, what I like to call, the political/conspiracy arc. Things are settling down, so it is a run of the mill episode for the first half, but boy does it pick it up on the second half...
Learning that the random soldier seen in Eren's visions/Grisha's memories is none other than Keith Shadis, the commander in charge of training our heroes all the way back in epsiode 3, blew my mind. This is the power of SnK, to bring back a character that in other anime would just be a trope. One cannot overstate his impact in the story. To say that the events of the first 3 seasons SnK would not have happened (or at least in the way they happened) without him is barely an exageration, even if it is unbeknown to Shadis himself.
We get some backstory of Grisha, though it comes (no surprises here) with more questions than answers. I've read some interesting theories about his memory loss, like the Founding Titan wiping his memory or he eating a previous Attack Titan holder. We get gems like Grisha saving the town from an epidemic. Remember Hannes mentioning that all the way back in episode 1? Again, in other shows this could mean nothing, but in this one there's actually good compelling reasons for this event, foreshadowing reveals in the future. Point taken, it'd have been impossible to guess, but everything is more beautiful in hindsight.
Another gem is the scene from episode 1, that of the Scouts returning from an expedition. That heartbreaking scene had Shadis as protagonist, yet again Isayama's giving us everything on a silver platter yet we can't see it. Another example of this is Shadis inner monologue towards the end of episode 3, when he mentions Grisha. Whatever thought we may had have about that (at that time, probably nothing spectacular) gets buried below season 1 crazyness which comes swiftly after. We also get Eren's transformation and eating of his dad, from Grishas point of view.
We haven't even touched the ''main'' theme of this episode; Shadis tragic and sad underachieving life. He loses the girl he likes, he fails at his job of Scouts commander and realizes he doesn't amount to be someone special. There are ''special people'' in this world (cue image of Erwin, Levi and Co), he just wasn't one of them. A direct shout out to storytelling itself.
We end on one of the most emotional/heartwarming endings in AoT, as the credits and ending song play while the episode itself is ending (loved this) and Carla delivers an incredible life lesson. ''Is it wrong not to be special?'' ''He (Eren) doesn't have to be better than anyone else (...), he's already special beacuse he was born into this world.''
Oh yeah, remember how Eren's equipment was faulty? That was Keith, trying to fulfill Carla's wish of protecting Eren. Mind=blown. This episode is such a huge callback to things many years ago both irl and in the show. But Alas, Eren's will cannot be tamed, Keith gives in. He can't do nothing about it. ''I am a mere bystander''.
Best episode ever
arwenzwj2 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
My eyes were full of tears when the episode revealed why Eren's belt was broken. In my opinion, Keith was surely in love with Carla and he simply wanted to shield Eren from the harm. But when he saw Eren struggling and prevailing, he must be reminded of the words Carla said, 'he's perfect and special by himself'. That's why he changed his mind and said to himself silently 'Grisha, your son became a military man today.'
Emotional storrytelling!
and_mikkelsen7 February 2023
This episode proved to be yet another emotional experience while exploring the most mysterious character in AOT, Grisha Yeager! While not revealing the full picture it still offers more knowledge than what we know so far, such as how Carla came into the picture and what role Keith played!
Keith is a perfect example of how every character is important and has a role to play in the story! That is why it is so rewarding to invest yourself in every single character!
Carla's final monologue had me in tears! It perfectly sums up Eren's character and paves the way for his future development!
Being born is enough to make you special.
Keith is a perfect example of how every character is important and has a role to play in the story! That is why it is so rewarding to invest yourself in every single character!
Carla's final monologue had me in tears! It perfectly sums up Eren's character and paves the way for his future development!
Being born is enough to make you special.
This anime is indescribable 9/10
Husain_anusif29 July 2021
I do not know how to avoid spoilers, but this episode is very wonderful. It contains information and answers to questions that we have been asking about for a very long time.
Now we know everything and there are still many secrets that we do not know, but I am sure that everything It will be revealed in the best way and I think that the second part will be more exciting and contain more action.
Now we know everything and there are still many secrets that we do not know, but I am sure that everything It will be revealed in the best way and I think that the second part will be more exciting and contain more action.
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