Summary
The following contains spoilers for Attack on Titan THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2, available onCrunchyroll.
With the dramaticend of theAttack on Titananimeseries after 10 years on the air, fans expressed a lot of emotions and opinions about the highly anticipated finale, which was broadcast on November 4. There were a few things about the ending that left fans wondering, one of which was the strange development of Falco Grice’s Jaw Titan.
Falco’s transformation into the Jaw Titan is far different from any of the ones we’ve seen thus far because it enables him to fly. Here are some possible reasons as towhy Falco Grice could flyin theAttack on Titanfinal episode.
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Where There’s a Will
During the first season ofAttack on Titan, when Eren was learning how to activate his Titan transformation at will, one of the major factors that led to successful transformation was established to be having a clear goal or desire. After initially rampaging and attacking allies and foes indiscriminately, Armin helped talk sense back into Eren’s mind, and he plugged up the gaping hole left in the wall by the Armoured Titan. Eren would soon after that partially activate his Titan transformation to protect Armin and Mikasa from a cannonball fired at them by terrified troops, and during his stint with Hange and Levi’s group, Eren would accidentally manifest a Titan arm while reaching for a spoon he dropped while his injuries healed.
Having a specific goal upon transforming was crucial to Eren’s eventual mastery of the Titan powers he’d inherited from Grisha. During theexploration of Grisha Jaeger’s backstoryduring the second season ofAttack on Titan, we came to learn how a young Zeke betrayed his father, leading to the persecution of the Eldian Restorationists, many of whom were transformed into Titans by former Attack Titan Eren Kruger, who was undercover as a Marleyan officer. When Grisha’s first wife, Dina Fritz, was transformed into a Pure Titan during the aforementioned incident, the last thing she said was “No matter what I become…don’t worry. I’ll find you”. Dina Fritz was revealed to be the very Titan that killed Eren’s mother in the very first episode ofAttack on Titan. What Dina said to Grisha had evidently come to pass: even as a Titan, that final thought expressed to Grisha would influence her movements.
Pure Titan
The second season ofAttack on Titanrevealed much about the mechanics of the Titan transformation in the case of pure Titans, with Connie’s home Ragako Village having clear signs of Titan destruction, but no signs of death. The inhabitants of Ragako had not been eaten, but transformed into Titans themselves. Connie’s mother, who was disabled prior to the transformation, was able to recognize her son and even talk to him despite being a Pure Titan. In the same realm as the incident at Ragako, a talking Titan encountered by Ilse Langnar, a member of an exterminated Survey Corps expedition during one ofthe first season’s OVAsopened up more questions about the origins of Titans. What was significant about the encounter is the fact that the Titan mistook Ilse for Ymir, the brown-haired and freckled girl who was part of the 104th Training Corps and revealed to be the Jaw Titan during season 2. Ymir was a once-nameless girl taken in by a man who was part of a sect that worshiped Ymir, the Founder. She was regarded highly by members of the sect and, since the man had given her the name of the founder, Ymir stood by that role even when he betrayed her after they were discovered by Marleyan authorities.
Ilse had the same brown hair and freckled appearance, and an Aberrant Titan she encountered forwent eating her after it prostrated itself to her, calling her a “Subject of Ymir”. When Ilse tried probing the Titan for answers regarding its origins, it grew increasingly frustrated before eating her and placing her body in the hollow of a tree. With context from the case of Ymir (the friend of Historia), it becomes clear that the Titan had been one of the Ymir cultists apprehended during Ymir’s time, one who was so passionate about worshiping the Founder that it persisted well beyond her transformation. Considering the case of the “talking Titan”, Ragako Village, Dina Fritz and Eren’s training, it’s evident that one’s behaviour after becoming a Titan is greatly affected by their sensibilities prior to their transformation. While it isn’t common, a semblance of the original person can remain ingrained deep within a Pure Titan.
Avian Memories
When we first encounter Falco in the first installment,Attack on Titan: The Final Season, he is lying on the ground in the middle of a battlefield. Dazed and detached from the surrounding violence, Falco gazes at a bird flying overhead, trying to get it to fly away from the danger. After Falco’s older brother, Colt, storms through a hail of bullets to retrieve him, the things Falco says make absolutely no sense to their situation. Falco talks to his friends about their battle, telling them he was just in an intense battle, flying about while armed with swords as he and various others engaged Titans. We soon learn that Falco has never actually been in such a battle, and that the ODM gear is technology unique to Paradis. The image of an injured Falco reaching up towards a bird flying overhead is used in the ending sequence of theFinal Seasonpart 1, which builds upon the association of Falco with birds.
Over the course of the following episodes, we learn more of Falco’s reluctance to participate in war, which eventually grows into his suggestion that he and Gabi live out their lives together when they’re marooned on Paradis duringAttack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2. It is possible that this desire to be able to escape his circumstances and be free, inspired by the vision of the bird he saw that day, was so profound to the eventual developments that would befall Falco’s character that it would wind up manifesting a uniqueness in his Titan transformation. As seen in the manifested legacy Titans, there have been many variants of the ennead, particularly when it comes to thevisual characteristics of the Warhammer, Beast and Jaw Titans.
Legacy
In the manga, Falco theorizes in a conversation with Annie that he could have the ability to fly, given that he was initially transformed into a pure Titan through Zeke’s spinal fluid before he inherited the Jaw from Porco Galliard which led to him seeing memories of a Beast Titan that could fly. Falco’s theory is that beast-like characteristics were passed onto him through Zeke’s spinal fluid, with his initial transformation into the Jaw manifesting various avian characteristics like its' trademark beak-like mask which forms an outer set of jaws, furry appendages and talons reminiscent of birds of prey.
Between the memories of an Avian Beast Titan of old, and the heavy association of the bird motif with Falco Grice (whose name is literally Late Latin for “falcon”), Falco’s Jaw Titan gaining flight has been alluded to in various ways, and he is pivotal to Eren’s defeat inthe Battle of Heaven and Earth.
