Welcome to the final three spots of the Top 12 Countdown of 2022. With only three days left in the year, we might as well give the bronze medal to this exact episode and series, and man, oh man, I might as well go back to where it all began with the craziness from the second part of the final season of Attack on Titan. Coming in at number 3 of the Top 12 Countdown of 2022 and it’s “Memories of the Future” from Attack on Titan.
Much like with The Owl House earlier in the countdown from “Thanks to Them” to “Hollow Mind”, we might as well go back to where it all began...well, already in progress, so I might as well lay out the background to all of this since this is the fourth episode of the second cour of the fourth and final season of Attack on Titan. Paradis gets invaded by Marley in response to the scouts’ siege on Liberio, Eren taking the Warhammer Titan, and Zeke’s betrayal. Worrying that if Eren and Zeke were to meet, then it would be game over for the Marleyans. With the Scouts, not too big a fan of what Eren is planning on doing, having no choice but to side with the Jaegerists, mostly because of Marley’s invasion. Everyone who drank the tainted wine turned into pure titans, and just as Eren and Zeke found an opportunity to meet one another...off goes Eren’s head by Gabi, and thus, the two brothers meet inside what appears to be an astral plane sort of scenery where only the people who had royal blood or have the Founding can visit. Thought that Zeke’s plan would go into action but Eren ends up betraying his brother because he used him to get to this point. Never agreed to the idea of euthanizing his own race. And thus, here we are, going down Memory Lane with Zeke and Eren going into Grisha’s memories.
And that is what the entire episode is all about with the two brothers going into their father’s memories through Eren on Grisha’s time on Paradis. Him raising a new family with Carla and Eren, as well as him being a doctor and treating the sick across the land while trying to survey where the Founding Titan is at. Some disagreements between Eren and Zeke regarding Grisha. Mostly Zeke knows that Grisha is a piece of crap and thinks of him as using Eren as a tool the same way he had gone through in his childhood before turning him and Dina in. Though Eren may disagree because with his childhood, he had the freedom that Zeke never got while growing up. But other than that, it didn’t take long for Eren to come to an understanding that Grisha is not a good father and only cares about the mission of becoming a doctor to get close to the Founding Titan and save Eldia.
Going through moment after moment in Grisha’s memories as the episode progresses from him checking on each patient, meeting with Eren and Armin and waving at them, to even the aftermath of where Eren saved Mikasa by killing two people who tried to kidnap her. Grisha seemed surprised that Eren and later Mikasa had a body count and even Zeke was shocked at what Eren did. Mostly that a kid like Eren just killed two people at a young age while trying to save someone. I mean, no one was around. Someone had to do the job to take out the pair of scumbags. Even in the part of the episode where Eren and Zeke are in the basement with Grisha sleeping with the journal open and just as the two make their way out is when you have Zeke hearing Grisha mumbling his name and saying in his sleep as if he’s shown some signs of regret of what he did to his first-born son. He even saw a glimpse of Zeke before going back to sleep. Setting things up to what is about to come regarding a certain ability that Grisha and Eren have while going through memory lane.
But before that, we have a small scuffle between the two brothers. Zeke sees that Eren accepted the fact that Grisha isn’t a good dad and accepted what Zeke said about him being brainwashed but questions why Eren didn’t go along with Zeke’s plan. Telling him, “Okay, we can both agree that Grisha is a piece of shit of a dad. But why the fuck did you betray me? We were on the verge of greatness to end the bloodshed. What is stopping you, man? What’s stopping you? Why do you want to start your version of the rumbling?” Eren comes in to respond to Zeke that he only did it because he wants to get back at Marley for the shit they caused. Or as he said, “They try to take my freedom, so I’ll take theirs.” Mind you that Eren, even though he teamed up with Zeke leading up to where we are at this point in time, he never agreed on wanting to euthanize the Eldians. A difference between the two goals of the two brothers when wanting to end the bloodshed is that Zeke’s solution is to euthanize the Eldians but Eren’s solution is pretty much him saying fuck the world. He’s gonna do massive damage control. Which he is currently doing at the time of where we are in the anime.
Going into the next memory, the day Wall Maria fell. Going back to the first episode of the anime, with a different style rather than reusing the ones that Studio WIT animated, with Eren wanting to join the scouts despite Carla not wanting him to risk his life. And of course, Grisha showing Eren the key to the basement and wants to show him what’s in the basement once he returns from his trip. You know, laying down the foundation for what is about to come later in the day once the wall is breached by Reiner and Bertholdt. Titans coming into Shigashina and of course, Carla being eaten by a titan. Also mind you that when Grisha was showing the key to Eren, looking at the shot, it looks like he was talking to present-day Eren when showing the key. Not the kid version of Eren.
And now we get to the moment that may have changed the game for the series. Once Wall Maria fell and chaos erupted from the titans is where we see Grisha inside the cavern with him coming across with the Reiss family and Frieda, the current user of the Founding Titan at the time, with Grisha pleading to Frieda to intervene and save everyone who is being affected by the breach. Which Frieda declines and thinks that maybe humanity should suffer for their sins at the behest of Eldia for the war. And even Zeke agrees with what Frieda is saying, but Eren...oh ho, ho, ho...he is not taking this shit lightly from what he is hearing.
Frieda called out Grisha for what is capable of with the Attack Titan when bringing up the special abilities of each of the nine titans. That was until Grisha decides to talk about the Attack Titan and its special ability. Found out that the special ability that the Attack Titan has is the user to go through time. Seeing glimpses of the future and even knowing what the future holds. Shocking Frieda and even Zeke was surprised to hear what Grisha is saying about the Attack Titan’s ability to see into the future. You’d think that Grisha is bullshitting but...it’s not. It’s not. A bullshit ability, sure. But a bullshit ability that can hold serious consequences. Especially once Grisha wussed out from transforming into the Attack Titan...this is where things really hit the fan.
Especially when Eren steps up to the plate and manipulates his father into taking the Founding Titan. Telling him to man up and think about his sister Faye, his first wife Dina, his predecessor Kruger...everyone. And he means every single one. Now, I’m not the type of person who often times to compare each dub. With the Japanese dub with Yuki Kaji, it felt chilling in a quiet and threatening tone when doing this scene and it sent chills down your body. Same for the dub with Bryce Papenbrook when watching the dub but I think the dub may have knocked it out of the park with this scene. The key difference between the Japanese and English dubs from this scene is the tone. Both sides sound chilling in a quiet, yet threatening tone. With the Japanese, it’s chilling with an emotionless feel coming from Kaji. With Papenbrook, it sounds convincing when doing the quiet, yet threatening tone when doing Eren in this scene. And the way he said, “Even if you die, even after you die”...holy shit. What a line and what a way to perform it. So once Eren asks Grisha to man up to take the Founding Titan, he did the deed by taking the Founding away from Frieda, killing every member of the Reiss, all except Rod of course. And...fucking A, man. Fucking A with the twist that Eren may have rigged the series since the very start. Like...goddamn dude.
And the same may go with Grisha breaking down after committing the act of taking out the Reiss family and taking the Founding Titan away from Eren. And I guess I might as well compare the dub again for this one. With the English dub, it’s not a bad performance. You could see and hear what Grisha’s voice actor was doing to make this scene emotional and impactful. So it’s not a bad performance. But the Japanese dub...goddamn. The Japanese voice for Grisha knocked it out of the park that you could say that it’s Oscar-worthy for the way he performed. From the breakdown to the scene where Grisha sees a grown-up Zeke and apologizes to him for the stuff that he caused. As well as telling him that things will not go in Zeke’s favor and instead, be heading toward Eren and imagining a terrible future that is about to come. Not to mention, telling his first-born son to stop Eren as if he’s a threat to the world. And spoiler alert, he is. And...holy fucking shit, what a twist. What a ride. What an episode.
So all and all, what else to say but...fuck. Sure, the stroll down memory lane feels like set up but it was set up felt right leading up to the biggest twist in the series... hyperbolically, in history. Eren manipulates Grisha to take out the Reiss family, steal the Founding Titan from Frieda, and break down after becoming the victim...the victim. Eren’s not the victim. The whole “Eren’s being manipulated to do Grisha’s bidding” accusation from Zeke...it’s a total Uno reverse card on who controls who and it’s the son who manipulated the father. Like this is some Aizen-level plot twist and man...that is evil. That is evil coming from Eren to mess with his dad in the past to get the Founding Titan away from the Reiss family. And the crazy part is that Grisha didn’t even want to do the deed. He didn’t even want to do it but here comes Eren to convince him to take the Founding away from Frieda and...I don’t know what to say but...fuck, this was an amazing episode!
And that concludes the Number 3 spot in the Top 12 Countdown of 2022. What do you think about this episode? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 2 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Which episode and series will be taking home the silver medal? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Mastodon, and Instagram for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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