Eren’s Kruger-inspired scene in the opening of the episode was pure fudging HYPE. And looking a little deeper, I think it also hints at his development as a Titan Shifter, soldier, and young man stepping into adulthood after having trodden such a difficult path.
We’ll also be exploring a couple of brief but powerful moments of revelation involving Mikasa and Armin, respectively. What might the narrative be telling us here?
Tataka wana kereba katenai. Tatakae…tatakae…! [“If you don’t fight, you can’t win. Fight…fight…!”]—Eren Jaeger
Season 4, Episode 9: “Brave Volunteers” [Romaji provided by user Adrian Ruffner]
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What a chimera then is man! What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sewer of uncertainty and error; the glory and scum of the universe.
—Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Honestly, the fact that Armin knows the tics of the EMA relationship so well, that he knew precisely when to cover his ears while Eren was doing Target practice (someone finished a thought, everyone has digested it, someone either says something or performs an action, Eren is holding a gun so crap cover ears okay we’re good now) is one of those “finer point” details you don’t get in the manga. It was second nature to him; Mikasa said something, Eren waited before firing again (so he DID still care to listen to what his comrades had to say!), Armin prevented audio damage to himself, then continued on with the conversation like nothing happened.
Drumboardist
It’s a surprisingly….good flow of how friends that have known each other frickin’ forever handle their business. Similarly to Mikasa (….maybe….?) performing CPR on Sasha in the last episode, it’s these small “slice of life” moments that give more depth to the people we’ve watched for a long time. It’s….it’s ACCURATE. Nuance, baby! I love it. Also, Misaka is an Ackerman, so I doubt the close-range gunshot would’ve effected her much (and she didn’t react to it at all, so….that’s what I’m assuming). Either that, or her entire life — once Thunder Spears were created — has been plagued with tinnitus, and for THAT she has my sympathy. (“UUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG” “…..that’s why we have to keep moving forward.” “….WHAT?!?”)
….no, I don’t have tinnitus, I don’t know what you’re talking about. (Mostly ’cause I couldn’t hear it. For…..unrelated reasons.)
Edit: Naw, upon rewatching, Mikasa was still gripping Sasha’s shoulders, so it wasn’t CPR, she was just freaking out and yelling and crying. Okay, so much for the idea of it being impromptu-CPR.
This is one of those episodes where the comment section will be open on YouTube, so feel free to sound off there! HOWEVER…if you’re a manga reader, PLEASE make sure to properly mark off and hide from view any Season 4 spoilers you wish to share (that is, use a spoiler warning and make sure the spoiler material itself is below the “read more” tag). I do plan on moderating comments to try and help people avoid getting accidentally spoiled regarding Season 4.
And if you’re a troll who wants to deliberately do that for “fun”? …I’ll respond accordingly.
All right, folks. Shinzou wo sasageyo!!
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Content Notice: Regarding content, most of my coverage of “Attack on Titan” will be in the PG range, unless otherwise noted. PG-13 will be when we get into things like particularly graphic descriptions of violence and suicide.
The show itself is definitely an R/TV-MA series, however, and I would recommend a minimum age of 15 or so. That is chiefly due to violence, mainly of the action type. That aspect gets very intense. There’s some strong language here and there, but not to where it’s really noteworthy, and as far as I can recall, there’s been no graphic nudity or sexual content thus far, though there are certain other content caveats mentioned in my review.
Resource Roundup:
- Zeke: “Koreee?” https://youtu.be/Mu7AMFaBnXw
- Resources—trailer-reaction episode page, WolfManiac_ interview, Blaise Pascal posts, and AoT clips: https://bridgeurl.com/reference-links-for-podcast-episode-77-aot-s4e9-part-6
- Link for new page on Vurbl: https://vurbl.com/station/7CzpBqKxFav/
- My article on the younger Eren Jaeger: https://ahsokajackson.com/2021/01/10/complex-humanity-and-nuanced-masculinity-eren-jaeger-was-already-a-great-character/
- Part 1 of my review for Episode 9: https://ahsokajackson.com/2021/02/09/72-reaction-to-attack-on-titan-season-4-episode-9-brave-volunteers/
- My series review for people new to the show: https://ahsokajackson.com/2020/12/07/9-why-attack-on-titan-shingeki-no-kyojin-is-well-worth-a-try/
- Part 1 of my Season 4 trailer reaction: https://ahsokajackson.com/2020/12/07/10-thoughts-on-the-season-4-shingeki-no-kyojin-attack-on-titan-trailer-part-1/
Resources & Episode Web Page: https://ahsokajackson.com/2021/02/13/79-part-8-of-reaction-to-attack-on-titan-s4e9-brave-volunteers/(opens in a new tab)
Keep an eye out for upcoming episodes! You can find links to many of the podcast platforms where the show is currently available, plus the subtitled/captioned YouTube videos, here: https://elink.io/98db231
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