[Guido]

Perhaps to me this is my favorite episode of the entire series, and I'm gladly to have found for myself the chance to finally comment about it.


Shingeki no Kyojin reminds us constantly that nature itself is cold, callous, brutal, and merciless; it's the metaphor to natural selection, the life and death struggle for adaptability and survival. I cannot bring myself to judge Armin right after witnessing Eren getting devoured before his very own eyes. Honestly, I will shit myself, and not trying to put with a brave facade, finding myself in that same world and hell onslaught. Humanity is constantly threatened and at the edge of losing the battle of species.
To make matters for worse, but ultimately interesting, is that still humanity continues to find itself divided and quarreling over such petty things like corruption, greed, lust, discrimination, etc. Regarding that last point, Shingeki no Kyojin delivers a wonderful job portraying the harmful side of human nature in the likes of people caring for nothing but their own interests and personal gains; the so called pigs that bully others and live with luxuries at the expense of others' lives and misfortunes.
If Eren's the savage but noble wolf that refuses to give in living inside a comfort bubble, then the greedy maniacs profiting to fill their pockets are the fat pigs that do not contribute to anything for the cause of humanity's survival as a whole species, hence, their deaths won't be felt.

In that respect, my praise goes to Mikasa for standing her ground and not feeling an inch of fear shutting up that pig of a merchant, who was monopolizing the escape route and thus endangering the lives of the rest of the civilians out of pure greed.

The episode itself is precisely about what Mikasa realized and understood about nature and the outside world. Her childhood was not trounced by Titans but by hungry pigs in the guise of humans, and Eren did more than just saving her life but gave her a reason to exist, to keep on struggling to the hard end, and a home to return to. More importantly, the flashback is pivotal as it allowed us, the audience, to delve deeper within Mikasa and explored her awakening in response to the callousness of the world, becoming the feral but calm beast and deadly soldier that she has become.
Her fighting style is based on sharpened and intrinsic, killer instinct.
Eren's based on a will of fire that refuses to be extinguished no matter what.