Oh, no.
Look at all those houses up in the sky.
One of 'em could be yours, right, Eren?
How's it feel to have your own roof over your head again?
Get it?
Sasha, could you smack him for me?
It doesn't look like Bertholdt knows our location.
You're right.
He's just scattering burning debris to turn Shiganshina into a sea of flames.
That bastard.
You're back.
And this time you wanna burn down my city?
Hey, Armin!
Your orders? C'mon!
What should we do?
I can tell I'm right.
I mean, just look at the way you're shaking.
You're scared outta your mind, aren't you?
Jean, can you take over for me?
What?
I don't know what to do.
I'm worried I'll screw up.
I made a mistake thinking we could talk to Bertholdt, and look where it got us.
Please, Jean!
You're better suited for this!
Move.
Make for the river!
Everyone aboard Eren!
Conserve our gas!
Eren.
At some point, we'll have to get Bertholdt's attention,
but until then, you need to stay out of sight.
Hey, Armin.
I'm all right with judgment calls,
but I don't have some genius plan for getting us out of this.
In the end, you're the one we're gonna be counting on.
This area's all mopped up.
The only ones left for us to eliminate are way up at the front.
But I still don't see how we're going to take down the Beast Titan.
It doesn't seem like he's got any intention of budging from that spot.
That's true.
Looks like the big guy's a coward.
Not that he ever had any balls to begin with.
Save your energy.
We can finish off the rest of the runts out there.
Let's go!
Yes, sir!
Shit.
That explosion just now...
Are Hange and the others all right?
Or did they get caught up in it?
I need to get to the other side and...
Hmm.
That one was a little higher than I would've liked.
Huh? Oh, good work.
Leave it there.
No problem, we'll just consider the first pitch a warm-up.
I'm going for nothing less than a perfect game today!
Frontal bombardment!
All troops, take cover now!
What the...?
Damn it!
Get down!
Guys, any idea what the hell that sound was?
So does the enemy have cannons or something?
If so, there's gotta be a hundred of them!
Calm down, everyone! You're scaring the horses!
The Titan's throwing boulders!
Captain Levi!
Move, now!
Take the horses and retreat to the wall.
Yes, sir!
Move! Stay out of the line of fire!
You wanna die? Get up!
Commander!
How's it looking?
Terrible.
The front line of houses is gone.
He decimated them.
If he keeps throwing those, everything will be leveled.
We won't have anything left to hide behind.
And we can't retreat to the other side of the wall?
No.
The Colossal Titan is already heading this way,
setting fire to everything in his path.
Theoretically, we could scale the wall to evade the stones,
but the horses can't.
We retreat here, and there's no hope for victory.
What happened to Hange's group?
Is Eren all right?
I don't know.
Most of them are gone...
caught up when the explosion occurred.
We've sustained a great many casualties.
The Beast Titan directed the small Titans in such a way that our soldiers would group up in one place.
Dirk Squad, Marlene Squad, and Klaus Squad were engaging the small Titans,
which put them in the line of fire when he launched the bombardment.
They were all wiped out.
In other words,
our remaining forces on this side of the gate
consist of you new Scout recruits, Captain Levi, and me.
No others.
We're doomed!
So what now?
Do you have any kind of plan?
Yell at him, Eren!
We can't let Bertholdt get any closer to the wall!
He heard you.
The bastard's ignoring us. He's heading straight for the wall!
So what do we do now, Jean?
If he gets there...
We're not letting him.
Hey, Eren! Tackle that lanky jerk's leg!
Hang on.
Do we actually have a plan for this?
With that steam he puts out, he can make our ODM gear useless!
It won't connect!
You think I don't know that?
I'm well aware, but we have to give it a try anyway.
We can figure out his weakness as we fight!
I can kill him.
You just keep him distracted.
Conny, give me your Thunder Spear.
Uh... sure thing!
Listen, Armin. Odds are, we're still gonna need a plan from you.
So stop moping and observe him from afar.
We have to believe we can win this!
Right!
Now! Scatter!
How dare you look down on me!
After what you've done,
you should be on your knees begging for mercy!
Whoa. He pushed him!
You can do it, Eren!
Knock him on his ass!
There must be a way.
We just have to find it.
Huh?
Eren!
Damn it.
That's Eren up there.
There's only one Titan that could fling him like that.
The Colossal.
Eren's not moving.
He's still alive, though.
Focus on keeping Bertholdt off him.
That might have been pushing it too far.
That's what'll happen if we charge at him without a plan.
Now what?
Unless we can turn the tables somehow,
this operation will fail,
all of us will die,
and eventually, humanity will fall.
Well, screw it then.
Plan or no, I'm not just gonna sit around and wait to get slaughtered.
Let's take the fight to him!
He doesn't know about the Thunder Spears yet!
Sasha and Conny will help me distract him!
Mikasa, you go for the kill!
Right!
Hey, freak-show!
You forget your skin somewhere?
You look so gross!
No one wants to see all that, ya pervert!
This distraction is way too obvious.
But we only need one good hit.
Guys!
Is there nothing we can do?
That steam even knocked away the Thunder Spears mid-flight.
Conny!
Damn it. I breathed some in and burned my throat.
Mikasa! You're hurt!
It isn't bad.
A bit of shrapnel from the Thunder Spears got me.
Figured something out yet?
Huh?
Tell me. Is there a way that we can fight back?
I don't know.
This place is gonna look like a honeycomb before long.
The Beast Titan knows where we are.
Erwin.
If there's no chance that we can turn this around then tell me,
and we can still cut our losses.
Go shake the shit out of Eren till he wakes up.
Have him run away with as many people as he can carry.
Then we'll have at least some survivors.
It's our job to guard the horses!
Why'd you let yours run away?
Shut up!
Like it even matters now.
What was that?
Those other scouts were insanely strong and all of them died in an instant!
What chance do we have where they failed?
There's no reason to guard the horses.
Because there's not gonna be anyone left to ride them home!
There was a point when it all made sense.
If everyone just cowered behind the walls and waited,
then someday Titans would come out of nowhere and wipe us out.
It was obvious that someone needed to bite the bullet and fight.
It would be dangerous, yeah,
but the soldiers who did it would be risking their lives to protect their loved ones.
So when the recruiter asked us,
"Which of you has the courage?"
I actually thought I could do it.
Thought I'd be some kinda hero.
I didn't get it.
I didn't know.
I thought that if I died,
it would at least have some meaning... but it won't.
It didn't for the others. They're just gone.
You know what?
I bet almost everyone ends up having that same final thought.
I was so stupid for coming here.
Why did I think I'd be different?
You could tell what's left of the recruits and Hange's group to run away on horseback.
They won't have much of a chance, but they'll be decoys.
They can give Eren a shot at escaping.
Tell me.
How would you fit into this plan?
I'm gonna go after the Beast Titan.
I'll draw him away somehow and...
You can't.
You won't even make it near him.
Probably not.
But, if you and Eren make it home alive,
then there will still be hope.
All things considered,
I feel like that's the best we can ask for.
We've been brutalized.
To be honest, sir,
it seems like this battle will be where the Scout Regiment gets finished off.
Yes.
If we had no way to fight back, then you would be right.
Is there a way?
There is.
You could've mentioned that before.
Care to explain why you kept your shitty mouth shut?
The plan could go a few ways.
Best case, you'll have a decent chance of killing the Beast Titan.
But for it to succeed... the recruits and I have to die.
The Survey Corps may survive.
But regardless, most of us will end up dead.
Frankly, we're almost guaranteed to be defeated, no matter what.
The recruits and I will be staking our deaths on the slimmest chance of victory.
For this to work...
to convince these youths to charge toward their deaths...
it would take an expert con man and a whole slew of blatant lies.
If I don't lead the vanguard myself,
then none of them will have the courage.
Which means I must be the first to charge.
And the first to be slain as well.
So I'll never learn the truth.
Huh?
I just... wanted to reach that cellar.
Everything I've done up to this point,
I did in the hopes that this chance would come.
I dreamt... that I'd get to prove I was right.
Many times,
I thought that death would've been easier, but then I...
I think of the questions I needed answered.
They're what I lived for.
And now those answers are no more than a coward's leap away.
I'm so close, but...
Can you see them, too?
Our comrades. They're all standing around us.
They've been watching us all this time.
They want to know what we did with the sacrifices that they made...
What became of the hearts they gave...
But that's probably just in my head, right?
Of no more import than a child's bad dream.
You led us well.
Fought hard.
No one else could've gotten us this far.
I'll make the choice for you.
Give up on your dream and charge to your death.
Lead those crying children straight to hell.
I'll reach the Beast Titan and tear him apart.
Huh?
Charge!
Huh.
I didn't expect them to lay down and die, but...
A suicide charge?
For some reason I thought they'd do better than that.
All right. Fire!
Is that smoke?
Oh, it's from those signal guns they use.
Incoming. Spread out!
I'm about to announce our final mission.
All troops, line up!
We're going to mount a cavalry charge,
rushing the Beast Titan directly.
Clearly, this will make us ideal targets for him.
So we'll wait until the moment he's ready to throw,
and then we'll fire our smoke signals together.
That should somewhat reduce his accuracy.
While we distract the Beast Titan,
Captain Levi will get in position to dispatch it.
Does anyone have questions?
What?
You want me to go after him with just ODM gear?
He's standing in the middle of a field.
I can't fight without a house or tree to hook on.
You're wrong.
Huh?
There happens to be a line of objects at just the right height for your approach.
Use his thralls to advance unseen...
...and assassinate the son of a bitch.
I'm sorry.
There's no point standing around.
We'll only be showered by more boulders.
Ready your horses, on the double!
Be honest.
Are all of us... riding to our deaths?
Yes, we are.
And since we're dying anyway, you're saying that it's better...
...if we at least die fighting?
I am.
But wait, if we'll die anyway, then who cares what we do?
We could just disobey your orders...
...and it wouldn't mean a thing, would it?
Yes, you're precisely right.
Everything that you thought had meaning...
every hope, dream, or moment of happiness...
None of it matters as you lie, bleeding out, on the battlefield.
None of it changes what a speeding rock does to a body.
We all die.
But does that mean our lives are meaningless?
Does that mean that there was no point in our being born?
Would you say that of our slain comrades?
What about their lives?
Were they meaningless?
They were not!
Their memory serves as an example to us all!
The courageous fallen!
The anguished fallen!
Their lives have meaning because we, the living, refuse to forget them!
And as we ride to certain death,
we trust our successors to do the same for us.
Because my soldiers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world.
My soldiers push forward!
My soldiers scream out!
My soldiers rage!
For friends who gave their hearts.
For friends who gave up on their dreams.
Until everything burns out,
they'll charge through the chaos
to spite the fear they've been taught.
Next episode: "Hero."