Attack On Titan Season 4 Makes Marley The New Eldia (Is That The Point?)

Marley crashes Eren Jaeger’s rooftop party in Attack on Titan season 4, but it’s remarkable how closely the ensuing battle echoes Eren’s invasion of Marley from earlier this season. At the heart of Attack on Titan lies a centuries-old battle between two towering empires – the Eldians, and the Marleyans. After acquiring the Titans’ power, Eldia reigned supreme for many years. Marley eventually led a revolution, and the Eldians were sent packing to Paradis Island, while Marley seized control of the wider world. Attack on Titan‘s narrative begins with Eldia taking its first tentative steps toward regaining freedom, spearheaded by our protagonist trio of Eren, Mikasa and Armin.

Picking up right where part 1 left off, Attack on Titan season 4, part 2 opens with the Marleyan army descending upon Paradis Island, currently occupied by Eren’s hopeless followers, the Jaegerists. Armed Marleyan soldiers rain down from flying airships, the Jaw, Cart and Armored Titans run wild, and the surprised Eldian forces barely have time to aim before they’re splattered across nearby rooftops. But the brutal battle depicted in season 4’s “Judgement” may trigger déjà vu for Attack on Titan fans. Virtually every major beat matches a corresponding moment from when Eren and the Eldians invaded Marley back in Attack on Titan season 4, part 1.

In both skirmishes, the invading army makes a surprise aerial entrance in a fleet of blimps. Neither attack was anticipated, as each side foolishly believed their enemies would be too scared to strike directly. During the Battle of Liberio, the Eldians’ 3D maneuver gear exploited their advantage of surprise; in the more recent conflict, Marleyan soldiers receive backup from powerful blimp-mounted guns. Both invasions hinged entirely on infiltrating the enemy beforehand (Eren and Jean sneaking into Marley; Pieck and Porco hiding behind the Eldians’ walls), and each sequence culminates in an Eren Jaeger slug-fest against the Jaw Titan and Reiner’s Armored Titan. Eren dominated the first time; Reiner looks stronger during their rematch. When the fighting kicked off in Liberio, the home team’s biggest combat assets – Porco and Pieck – had been trapped underground by Jean’s trickery; when the first shots are fired on Paradis Island, Armin and the Survey Corps originals are locked in a cell until Onyankopon comes to free them. Finally, Eren’s goal invading Marley was to extract Zeke, but he also acquired the War Hammer Titan. Marley’s goal invading Paradis is to extract (or kill) Zeke, and acquire Eren’s Founding Titan.

With so many parallels between season 4’s two biggest battles, Attack on Titan is reversing the roles of Eldia and Marley – and not for the first time, as Eren’s surprise assault on Liberio already showed echoes of season 1’s Shiganshina incident, where Marley’s Titan-shifters kicked down the gate of Eren’s hometown. Eldia was the victim and Marley the aggressor after Shiganshina, then Eldia became the bad guys by decimating Marley’s Liberio, now Marley looks wrong for laying waste to the folks behind the walls. These overt similarities are designed to highlight how similar Eldia and Marley truly are, but perhaps also cement the core commentary behind Attack on Titan.

One section of Attack on Titan‘s audience point to Marley’s moral ambiguity as evidence of a controversial pro-militarization, colonization-apologist message within the narrative. While there’s certainly merit to that argument, another possible reading is that humanity as a whole is inherently awful, trapped within an unending cycle of violence and self-destruction. Marley is wrong, Eldia is wrong, the entire world is wrong – and the obvious parallels between Attack on Titan season 4’s Liberio and Paradis Island invasions support this interpretation. The Imperial Eldians became villains in the ancient past, Marley went from liberators to oppressors after the Great Titan War, Eren turned the tables by rendering most of Liberio into spare timber, and now Marley is copying him by pulling off an almost identical invasion.

Isn’t this the very point of Attack on Titan? Eren has often remarked how he and Reiner are “the same.” Both were innocent boys indoctrinated by the ruling elite, taught to hate an enemy they hadn’t even seen. Their respective countries are destined to repeat the same cycle of tragedy forever, probably wiping themselves out. By drawing such a clear comparison between sides, Attack on Titan takes the position that neither Eldia nor Marley can truly be considered the “good guys” of this tale – they’re both two sides of the same awful, war-mongering coin that corrupts the everyday people occupying their lands. At least the animation’s nice.

About The Author

Craig Elvy
(3624 Articles Published)

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Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016, several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. Having previously written for various sports and music outlets, Craig’s interest soon turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally came into its own.
Craig has previously been published on sites such as Den of Geek, and after many coffee-drenched hours hunched over a laptop, part-time evening work eventually turned into a full-time career covering everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Starship Enterprise via the TARDIS.

Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer.
Jim Carrey is Craig’s top acting pick and favorite topics include superheroes, anime and the unrecognized genius of the High School Musical trilogy.

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