Attack on Titan: Episode 8 (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexI’m back with this week’s latest episode of Attack on Titan! Missed my review of last week’s episode? Catch it here!We have what is our first filler episode of the season. I am going to give the writers of Attack on Titan a pass for it though. Up until this episode, a majority of every episode has been action and plot revelations. There always has to be a combo breaker.This episode deals solely with the aftermath of Eren’s battle against the Armored and Colossal Titans. The Colossal Titan’s body slam creates a shockwave which injures the Scouts and surprises Eren enough for Armored Titan to bite him. From there, the two Titans kidnap Eren and Ymir and flee.While the episode focuses mostly on the aftermath of the battle of titan-ic proportions (I’ll see myself out), we also get some flashback action. We are treated to a time where once again Eren attempts to defend Armin, and is once again shown up by Mikasa. As Eren attempts to fight Armin’s bullies, a drunk Hannes and other soldiers watch with interest. Mikasa eventually beats them up, with Eren trying to get into the fight. As the police arrive, the bullies scatter and Eren chases after them, leaving Mikasa and Armin in the dust.This flashback is later summarized by Hannes in a statement I think we can all agree with: Eren is a bad fighter. He literally throws himself at the enemy until they give up or someone else comes along and takes care of them. But, Hannes was also right when he said Eren can fight without usually taking a lot of damage. Eren may have horrible opening moves, but he gets better at strategy as the fight progresses. This allows him to take down the enemy without sustaining much damage to himself. This is exactly how he fought the Armored Titan, and it was working in his favor until the Colossal Titan sneak attack.While this episode didn’t provide a lot of new action, I feel like every good show is allowed as a free pass for one filler episode. Hopefully next week’s episode takes us back to our regularly scheduled Titan action.Next week’s episode is titled “Opening”. Eren and Reiner butt heads and the Beast Titan makes an appearance! Hopefully we’ll see if there are different factions of Titans, and how Reiner and Bertholdt feel about Beast Titan.[yasr_multiset setid=11]