Note: This post contains spoilers through episode 55 of the anime series.
I seem to have a knack for rejoining anime series right before some kind of big-time achievement or revelation. Granted, the current season of Attack on Titan (and I’m including the “first half” of season 3 from late last year in this description) has been chock full of big answers and plot developments, so complaining about having to wait for another one probably sounds silly. That said, the title of episode 56 is “The Basement,” and any fan of the series who’s stuck around this long ought to understand the significance of that.
The first part of this split-cour season was more focused on the background politics of humanity’s current situation, which I thought was a fascinating counterpoint to some of the more action-oriented story arcs from earlier in the series. What drew me into this series was the onslaught of ridiculous battle choreography and the page-turning, rapid-fire plot points, of course. But with subsequent seasons (with which I had a standing appointment to watch on the weekend mornings the episodes were posted), what kept me coming back were the curious questions that kept springing to mind about the origin of the Titans and how the human race had come to become their prisoners. Both facets of the series have been really engaging for me over the years, each one suspenseful and compelling in its own way.
What the series hasn’t necessarily always been known for are its characters and character relationships. Admittedly there have been some challenges throughout its run within that realm. The series protagonist, Eren Yeager, embodies a lot of annoying shounen tropes. He’s a young man, filled with the type of rage that fuels him through his role as the main character of the series. He’s got a “dead mom, absent dad” backstory worthy of any mediocre male coming-of-age tale, as well as the type of tunnel-vision that would realistically leave him dead in a pinch were it not for his supporting cast of childhood friends and military comrades. One thing that my husband said to me once has stuck with me as I’ve watched the episodes fly by – he thought the series had shown some bravery in “killing off” its annoying lead a few episodes in, which made the fact of his resurrection with even more power later on feel like a total cop-out. That may very well be true. I still can’t get enough of this series, though.
I tend to look at anime through the lens of my own life, and while I don’t spend my days running from giant, hungry humanoids, I do interact with a lot of different people at work and out in the world. I generally really like my job and I feel like my workplace is a good place to be employed. Mentorship is a large part of the culture, and there’s both a formal mentor program as well as countless informal relationships throughout the workplace focused on guiding others toward success. My colleagues and I once read through a book focused on leadership, and one of my biggest take-aways from the experience was the idea that leadership isn’t built on ordering people around or taking advantage of those who occupy lower positions on the food chain. The best leaders are humble, seek guidance from all sources, and endeavor to build pathways toward success that everyone can tread. While I don’t really buy into the capitalist context within which the book was framed, I think that these ideas are basically admirable.
This is likely why, in this set of episodes, Commander Erwin’s story stood out to me. He’s a man who’s been hailed as a hero to humanity, as well as reviled as a criminal (by a corrupt government… which sort of makes it a badge of honor I suppose). For years, his successful image has been predicated on his ability to rally people to the cause of defending humanity – the unspoken piece of that being that he’s accomplished this on the backs of multitudes of young squad members he’s sent to their deaths. Erwin is one of the “good guys,” or so it seems; he occupies a dangerous position in a dangerous squad, the only payoff for his apparent selflessness being a front-line defense of humanity from out in the wilderness, and perhaps a better understanding of how to eventually defeat the enemy.
He’s also a person, as we discover in these episodes, whose reason for exploring the vast and dangerous wilderness is really just based around proving a point. He wants to find out, at all costs, whether his father’s theories about the titans were true. He, like each of us, wants, needs to know what’s buried in that basement, because then he (and his father) can finally be right.
I came up through the ranks at my job (one of the only people lucky enough to achieve that while I’ve worked there, though I always hope someone else will join me sometime in the future), so I have a pretty decent perspective on what the entry-level staff has to deal with on a daily basis. Something I realized early on was that I felt obligated to do what I could in my management role to ensure that the day-to-day experience of the individuals working there was as smooth as possible. A lot of what I do involves troubleshooting, researching, and fixing errors or technological weirdness in time for people to shut-down, balance-out, and get home to their families and hobbies. Because of this, I sometimes find myself staying late or taking on extra tasks to make this happen – basically setting aside some of my own time and desires in service of this task. Whatever we may feel about the amount of time people are often required to work in capitalist societies (that could be an entire other essay and not really appropriate for this forum), it’s a choice I made when I decided to take on the mantle of “leader.”
This is also the general arc of Erwin’s story. As he sits talking to Levi, the weight of a hopeless situation bearing down on his shoulders, he speaks of his own desires and finally acknowledges that they’ve been selfish and contrary to the greater good all along. Indulging his own whims as a single human being will continue to require the ultimate sacrifice of those under his command. There’s a sadness in his statements that feels all too familiar – there are things he will never have the opportunity to do and visions he will never get to see with his own eyes. But hidden beneath his words is the reality that Erwin is finally accepting what it means to be a leader, including all the painful sacrifices that come along with that.
When the decision of who to save falls to Levi, there’s quite a bit of tension. There are good reasons to rescue both Erwin and Armin and the episode does a good job of maintaining the illusion that Levi could go either way. This is where I return to my husband’s pointed criticism – there’s no way a shounen anime would allow for the death of one of the main three characters, especially since Armin has been the sensitive moral center of the series almost from the beginning. But looking at it another way, saving Erwin would have been cheaping-out, too; after he’s decided to go “all in” on what it means to take on the responsibility of leadership, waving away his sacrifice would only contradict that meaning. When Erwin, in his delirium, slaps the serum away, there’s a sense that he realizes this within the deepest reaches of his psyche.
There’s a ton of gut-wrenching material in this set of episodes. A lot of people die horribly and there are some really painful stalemates reached in the big ongoing conflicts. I’m still reeling from Armin’s story in particular, especially the gruesome method by which he helps stop the Colossal Titan. But what I think will stick with me in the long term is Erwin’s sacrifice, because it speaks to much broader ideas of what leadership responsibility means. His final actions seek to clear a path for those who come later, to hopefully ensure that the younger humans after him don’t need to struggle nearly as hard during their brief existences. Nothing that I do in my work is a matter of life-or-death, obviously, but I think my goals are the same; I want to make sure that the people I lead are able to live their lives in the way that they choose and that they have the time in which to do so.