As Krista remembers the promise she made to Ymir back in training the battle begins between the Titan Horde and the "Dancing Titan". Krista finally decides to give Ymir an answer to her request but can she make it in time?
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: For both Krista/Historia and Ymir. In fact the first half of the episode takes place in a flashback of their time in the Cadet's instead of at the battle at Castle Utgard.
- An Arm and a Leg: Ymir sustains several injuries by the time she's rescued, including a couple of limbs. While she'll live due to her regeneration, it does incapacitate her for a while.
- Be Yourself: A big part of Ymir's personality and philosophy revolves around this concept. She was hated by the world in her youth to the point that she wished she had never been born and died in order to make others happy. However, if given a chance, she wanted a second go at life and wished to live only for herself. Therefore, she can't stand it when other people choose to hide who they really are and where they come from, as is the case with both Sasha and Krista.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the episode, when Ymir gets overwhelmed by the horde of Titans at Castle Utgard, the Survey Corps arrive and massacre the remaining Titans there and save the group's lives.
- Character Development: Eren has been so used to killing Titans in his Titan form, he's excited to accomplish killing his first one with his gear alone; something he has never done up until now.
- Colony Drop: Once Ymir starts being overwhelmed by the Titan Horde Krista instructs her to tear the tower down instead of protecting it. Ymir then does so, removing multiple bricks that are keeping the tower stable and grabbing Krista and co. and instructing them to hold on as the tower falls and crushes a large number of the Titans.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Ymir almost says this word for word when she tells her friends to grab on as the tower begins collapsing:Ymir: Want live...? Grab Me!
- Cover-Blowing Superpower: The consequence for Ymir's Titan Shifting at the end of the episode is that now everybody in the Survey Corps knows that she is a Titan.
- Death Wish: It's revealed that Historia in her "Krista Lenz" persona had a variant of this: she wants to die trying to save someone else so that she'll be remembered fondly. Ymir calls her out on this.
- Foil: As it turns out Krista and Ymir are a lot more alike then initially assumed as they both suffered from people who hated them and wanted them dead when they were younger and got a second chance at life. However while Ymir decided to embrace who she was as her own form of revenge against those who hated her, Krista decided to adopt a false name in order to hide who she was.
- Fragile Speedster: Ymir's Titan is fast and nimble, but small and has no defenses. Once Titans begin to gang up on her and grab her, she's in trouble.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Bertolt is seen with his hand close to his open mouth as Ymir comes to rescue him and the others from a collapsing tower, as if he's about to bite it. This is a clue about what would be revealed next episode.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: This episode really emphasizes that despite how she usually acts Ymir is a lot more compassionate then initially seen. During the flashback Ymir transforms into her Titan form in order to take Daz down the side of the mountain (although she did this more for Krista then him) and, as Krista notes during the Utgard battle, she could have very well just escaped while in Titan form but instead is risking her life to protect the group.
- Hope Spot: The tower collapses on most of the Titans and the 104th has safely landed... until several Titans emerge from the rubble unharmed and quickly overwhelm Ymir's Titan.
- The Promise: As it turns out the vow that Ymir mentioned last episode was that, if Ymir ever revealed her true self to Krista, she should embrace her true name. Sure enough after the battle at Castle Utgard is revealed "Krista" reveals to Ymir that her true name is Historia.
- The Reveal:
- As it turns out the reason that the Order of the Walls has been observing "Krista" is because she's actually the bastard daughter of a unnamed royal and his mistress and that, in order to ensure that they wouldn't kill her, she had to change her name and become part of the Cadets. "Krista's" real name is actually Historia.
- It's also confirmed in this episode that the Titan that ate Reiner and Bertolt's friend and Ymir's Titan form are one in the same.
- Tempting Fate: Eren loudly celebrates his first Titan kill in human form, but he messes up his wires and falls. He's very likely out of practice with his 3DMG, having relied on his Titan form so much.
- True Companions: The flashback shows that, after Krista and Ymir are shown to have not arrived at the destination the rest of the cadets were gathered at due to Daz having collapsed, every other member of the top 10 (barring Jean who seems to be missing) were prepared to go out in the middle of the blizzard to look for them despite being ordered not to.
- You Can Talk?: It turns out that Ymir is the third titan shown on screen with the ability to speak although she's nowhere as articulate as the Beast Titan.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the flashback Ymir calls out Krista not only for abandoning who she really is by adopting the alias of "Krista Lenz" but by adopting a Death Wish since she's basically allowing the people who ruined her life to win.
