Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 14 Recap and Analysis!

By Jivika Last updated Mar 17, 2022

“Do you want to know what I despise the most in the world?” People who do not have the freedom to choose. There isn’t much difference between them and cattle.”

“I really wanted to chat to you people…”

The words Eren spoke to his former companions and new adversaries at the conclusion of the previous episode of Attack on Titan were gloomy in their implications for the future. This anime is known for delivering an unprecedented amount of devastation through the use of terrible powers and brutal conflicts, but Eren Jaeger’s character growth this season has been so significant that seven words can be even more horrifying than dozens of strikes.

As a result, they converse. In this episode, about a third of the time is spent talking as Eren calmly confronts his best pals, and every second of it is emotionally explosive. Floch and his fellow Jaegerists take over the Survey Corps, and he speaks with them in an attempt to sway the populace and spark a revolution.

As a result, Zeke is able to converse with Levi in a way that allows him to let his guard down to the point where he is temporarily able to make a break for it. Despite the fact that Attack on Titan is full of terrible physical altercations, “Savagery” is all about how the savage nature of words may hit harder than any Titan blow and be even more difficult to recover from in some cases.

Despite their best efforts to get inside Eren’s thoughts and comprehend his recent actions, Mikasa and Armin discover that he is completely uninterested in justifying or explaining his actions as though he were a supervillain in the third act of a story.

In order to achieve his purpose, Eren does not waste time, but rather attacks his pals with mind games, leaving them destabilized and susceptible as a result of their participation. Despite the fact that Eren’s comments are terrible, his ice-cold demeanor throughout the entire conversation is as disturbing. He’s no longer dressed in the Kruger uniform, but he’s become even more unrecognizable.

The way Eren tells Mikasa that he’s always disliked her and doesn’t flinch when her tears start to flow shows that he is a ruthless individual. The fact that he is the only one who understands how much this callousness would ruin Mikasa, as well as how crucial she has been to his long-term survival, is beyond question.

What makes it even more devastating is seeing Eren completely leave the few individuals who still care about him as a person and aren’t just interested in using him as a means to a goal or as a weapon of destruction. He compliments Zeke in the same way that he criticizes Armin and Mikasa.

Armin and Mikasa are completely taken aback throughout the majority of this, and they have every reason to be. The fact that season three finishes with Eren and Armin optimistic about the future while they splash in the tide of the sea is silly, but it is also stupid that they are now decking each other out while spilling each other’s blood is also ridiculous. It’s been a while since a traditional fistfight has occurred in Attack on Titan, and the fact that it’s between Eren and Armin makes it all the more painful.

The choreography of Eren’s beating of Armin bears striking resemblance to the Attack Titan’s assault on the Armored and Jaw Titans, and the two battles are clearly related. It’s a watershed moment for this couple who have always had each other’s backs, and the spectator is left to wonder if Eren has actually fallen for Zeke or if there are other levels of deception at play here where this conduct is a ruse for something more sinister.

Every second that passes during this conversation is another grain of the old Eren that falls through the hourglass, and he becomes less and less recognizable from the previous moment. Almost every statement has a bite to it, and it’s even more gut-wrenching to watch Mikasa immediately protect Eren and criticize Armin over the issue as if she’s some indoctrinated partner in a poisonous relationship (and in many ways, she is).

Even after everything that has happened, Mikasa feels driven to assist Eren, and she would probably even go down smiling and thanking Eren if he suddenly snapped and decided to eat her. Some of this has to do with the chilling information that Eren reveals about the nature of the Ackermans and how Mikasa has become essentially imprinted on him to some degree, but even without this inherent connection, Mikasa appears to be the type of person who would selflessly stay by Eren’s side and hope for the best no matter what happened to him.

In another part of the world, Eren’s plan is being carried out by Hange, Floch, and the new recruits in the Survey Corps. Floch’s ability to influence these recruits so quickly and poison the good results in a terrifying extrapolation of the Jaegerists’ prior terrorism, which is scary to contemplate.

Despite the fact that so many respectable people have perished in recent episodes, it is painful to witness a group like the Survey Corps become entirely devoid of morals and become nothing more than a tool for the enemy. In “Savagery,” a large number of characters employ words such as “ammunition for a weapon,” but Hange fails to capitalize on this tactic.

The fact that the wine has been tainted with Zeke’s spinal fluid is something she tries to communicate to the other patients, but she is ignored and her treatment continues to be horrible. It appears that she will be held as a prisoner, for the time being, assuming that she is not killed outright as part of a trust exercise that Floch puts his new recruits through like he did with Keith Shades in the previous episode.

It makes no difference whether or not Floch and company believe in or care about Zeke’s spinal wine because everyone will find out the hard way once Zeke puts his power into action. The forest quickly becomes overrun with Titans, and the second part of “Savagery” is packed with action to counterbalance the verbal battle that occurs earlier in the movie. Many of Marley’s citizens are activated by Zeke’s gambit, and it’s interesting to see the long-term ramifications of this “wine hangover” manifest themselves fully in the town.

Unfortunately, Levi’s own troops liked these libations, which pushes him to take down his comrades with no time to consider options before they are taken down. This is a decision that clearly weighs deeply on Levi’s mind and demonstrates his dedication to his cause. While performing this practice, Levi is able to view the faces of his companions before he takes down their Titan forms, which makes the experience even more terrible.

This is a mentally taxing strategy for Levi, but it also results in a visually breathtaking action sequence that ranks among the best fights in Attack on Titan since season three. Levi’s carnage is beautifully choreographed, as he takes advantage of his claustrophobic surroundings to his advantage. To see the anime go all out with this confrontation and to see Levi avoid stumbling over these barriers and allowing Zeke to get away is quite enjoyable to see.

There has been a lot of tension between Levi and Zeke throughout the series, and the assault on Liberio was only a hint of the tension that exists between these two. This has been a long time in the making, and it has now received the attention it deserves. Perhaps the most heartening aspect of it all is that Levi shares his triumph with Erwin and states that this is just as much his victory as it is Erwin’s and that his spirit can finally find some peace as a result of this.

By the end of “Savagery,” a lot is still out in the air, and each episode continues to unearth more and more information about the current state of affairs. Levi and Zeke’s narrative comes to a close on the most terrible note of the entire series, as Levi holds Zeke in a type of brutal suspended torture that would make Asami from Audition blush in the slightest. It’s the most severe action Levi has ever taken, and it’s yet another example of how everyone is being pushed to the brink of their physical and mental limits.

But these recent instances have demonstrated more than anything that this type of radical behavior appears to be the only means of surviving; those who refuse to accept these ruthless ways are the ones who are trampled underfoot by the march of “progress.” Zeke just wants to be able to play catch like he did when he was a kid, but that’s not going to be possible.

Children in Eldia and Marley are more familiar with hand grenades than they are with baseballs, which is understandable. “Savagery” begins this train of thought, while “Sole Salvation” demonstrates that the two can be equally harmful at times.