AoT Season 3 (part 1 and 2) review:

Historia has no consistent character motivation. But it's not that, she is inconsistent with her inconsistency. So, if the plot needs her to have a certain motivation, she will be given that because "it will make the story more logical and progress". On the contrary, the unique idea that Eren posses the memories of other titans through the ritual, why was this not hinted towards earlier? A missed opportunity to make it an "AHA!" moment instead of "what?" And that's where I get fatigued with this anime. In this season of AoT there are no "AHA!" moments but moments where the story SHOCKS you with some information that we have no idea about, that we have no emotional stake in and expects us to care. The first instance of this is the Armored and Colossal titan revealing themselves. That could have been a huge "AHA" moment. You have these two characters people have latched onto emotionally and maybe even fan favorites, yet it leaves us with more questions than answers. And you can tell that the writers aren't even sure of what they are doing with the dialogue and so the voice actors have no motivation for the lines. Then, before anyone can think, you have this intense action which leads to a rescue scene which leads to THE MOST IMPORTANT death in the show, and yet we have no idea why anything is happening. If you alienate your audience from the plot, the audience does not know who to cheer for. The rate at which it introduces new subplots and worldbuilding just to confirm or deny them leaves me with whiplash. If you keep introducing new information about titans, bloodlines, government, complex characters that show up out of nowhere, you lose the groundedness of a show where I can be emotionally invested. All these ideas are cool, but the execution was lackluster. Yet another moment in anime where I sigh and say, "cool concept/story idea/plot twist, but horrible execution."

Bystander was an amazing episode. It somehow managed to inform/catch up the audince, resolve questions about Eren's timeline and give the characters motivation in a clear, consise way. It takes 1 or 2 elements, and focuses in on those plot points to deliver a fantastic episode.

Night of the Battle to Retake the Wall - what an amazing episode! Perfect culmination of all the emotions and all to set a single goal - to drive out the titans. The moment shared between Armin, Mikasa and Eren where they talked about how somethings can never go back to normal was beautiful. And the send off that the people cave to the scouts was also super heartwarming. 10/10

"The Town Where Everything Began" and onward is a true RETURN TO FORM for the series! Coming back to where it all started. Absolutely great flashback episodes that clearly explain the lore in a way that provokes DRAMA and TENSION! And before that, when Levi has to decide who to save WOW that is some seriously good writting and drama. The series finally shows Eren changing, evolving, after coming face to face with who he is and what he is. Mikasa smiles, Armin finally sees beyond the wall, but Eren knows what is coming, and he can never go back to being ignorant anymore about what has happened and what he must do. Amazing ending, AoT s3 stuck it's landing. I think the last few episodes where the best AoT I have seen, however the road to getting here was full of the worst and most boring, drawn out, exposition dumping episodes. I'm so glad they found a way to draw me back into the show in part two of s3!