I adore it. It’s my favorite one visually and symbolically. It brought me to tears. Musically it’s nice but not my fave.

For my very brief, rushed analysis of it (I’m not gonna cover every shot I don’t have time but):

We open with Eren with his eyes closed.

And then Eren awake, with his eyes open, jumping into action.

The camera then pulls back, symbolic of how his world is going to open up this season with the discovery of Marley. It’s also a part of growing up and maturation, a major theme in the Uprising and Shiganshina arc: learning to expand your worldview.

They cast larger shadows, symbolizing among other things, again, groiwng up, and also what they have to overcome:

The still images are fascinating, because they are of them as children, because they can’t change their past no matter what happens in the future.

We then have adorable baby Levi stumbling around between street walls #symbolism.

Levi flipping a knife and looking at an angle that appears to match Kenny’s angle next, showing again, that Kenny is his father figure.

And also Kenny’s original shot of him with his face covered and then flipping his hat up so we see his face: a literal unmasking.

If this Erwin shot of him watching his father and his child self does not break your heart I don’t know if you have one. Erwin’s face is also resolute, signifying how he was driven by his childhood trauma to the very end.

Baby Historia, initially appearing alone, only then to be revealed to be  with Frieda, opening her hands and releasing into the wider world.

Eren appears and then we see his hand reaching for himself, but he can’t grab hold. He also then reaches for Mikasa, who stares away from him up at the sky, clutching her scarf (a symbol of something that saved her during her moment of trauma, and of her love for Eren that anchors her).

The hand then reaches for Armin, looking down, and Armin vanishes and hte hand is left with blood, and if you’ve read the manga you’ll know what this is referring to. It’s also interesting that Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are all looking in different directions, which is again symbolic of growing up and forming your own individual place in the world.

More still images of Carla and Grisha and baby Eren, and then we see Shiganshina again, the childhood home, and Eren then gets to his feet to look out at the larger world, but with his back turned towards the audience. I don’t want to speculate too much but you can clearly see this as a reference to what’s going on in the manga right now, with Eren going rogue from everyone who cares about him, and not even listening to his child self who keeps trying to get his attention before giving up. This is my favorite part, and I cry.

Then we see them running as kids, but not the destination. We see the Warrior babies trying to find their way through a dark, confusing forest with a lamp, looking lost.

Historia at the fence, refusing to looking out and away, rocking as if she can’t decide whether to step forward or not, Erwin and Levi passing each other and Levi watching Erwin.

The Shinganshina trio are running and they lose a shoe, and it’s left behind, the key and then a still shot of them laughing together. The key of course is the thing that will unlock the larger world they’re a part of, a world that they all need to find their way in, and they have to keep running forward, keep fighting for that beauty in the middle of a cruel world. It doesn’t lessen the beauty of the relationships they’ve shared, but it does make it impossible for them to go back to those days. Their love for each other will never lessen, that I believe, but they won’t be able to return to the simplicity of those childhood days, and their dreams will be realized but with a cost.