The Scouts and the Anti-Personnel Control Squad join battle; the Scouts fight smart and inflict serious losses on their enemies. Levi manages to wound Kenny non-fatally while Hange is taken out of the fight by Kenny's Dragon. Rod further persuades Historia into eating Eren so royal blood can regain his stolen power- Kenny reveals his true colors and gives Eren the means to fight back, who refuses. Historia eventually rejects her father entirely and moves to free Eren, but a desperate Rod licks the Titan serum and transforms...
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Kenny singles out and duels Levi during the cave battle, when he didn't participate at all in the source material.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Historia finally realizes what a selfish, manipulative prick her father is and turns against him.
- Character Development: Historia finally stops becoming a Extreme Doormat and displays some decisive will of her own.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Scouts manage to kill most of the MP's without any fatalities, though their enemies manage to wound Hange.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Kenny reveals his true colors when he realizes that his plan to eat Eren himself will fail.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Kenny seemingly fires at Levi and misses, before Levi realizes that the shot hit and exploded a wooden platform in his way, distracting him long enough for his opponent to come at with a knife.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted, Eren recounts the names of everyone that died because of him- at least the names he personally knew- since the battle of Trost during his monologue. It's worth noting that while it's been two seasons and several real years ago, for Eren everything has happened within the span of a couple of months.
- Grew a Spine: Historia when she remembers Ymir telling her to live a life she's proud of. She then finally calls Rod out for his BS.
- Heroic BSoD: Eren has undergone quite a bit of trauma with the revelation that his dad may have caused a lot of harm stealing the Founding Titan power, to the point that refuses to transform when given the chance and tearfully begs to be eaten to atone for it.
- I Shall Taunt You: Right from his hammy entrance, Kenny mocks and belittles Levi all throughout their fight like a child.Kenny: Neener, neener, neener!
- Just a Flesh Wound: Levi slices Kenny, but not deeply enough to incapacitate him or cause serious bleeding. Hange also takes a 3DMG hook to the shoulder and is slammed into a pillar, but is presumably fine.
- Logical Weakness: Armin and Hange come up with their battle plan by exploiting the weaknesses in the MP's weapons and gear: inability to fire and move in the same direction, low ammo count and long reload time, being weaker against blades in close quarters, and needing a line of sight to actually hit anything.
- Lost The Will To Live: Hopefully temporarily, but Eren accepts his fate of being eaten to atone for all the wrong that's been done since his father's sins.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Several MP's freak out when they realize too late that Levi's not the only major threat they're facing; they all fire in vain at Mikasa, who easily evades and carves them up.
- Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: The Scouts succeed by negating the MP's two primary advantages: range and surprise. Kenny is smart enough to pack a nasty-looking knife, which he uses in addition to his guns.
- Oh, Crap!: Rod lets out a panicked shriek when he realizes that the valuable syringe has been shattered on the floor.
- One-Man Army: Mikasa and Levi both carve through several Mooks in rapid succession on-screen, with special emphasis being given on Mikasa's slaughter. Averted by Kenny, who goes straight for Levi and duels him for his duration of the battle.
- Out of the Inferno: Levi finally gets the better of Kenny by throwing a sack of oil, which ignites when shot, letting Levi burst through the flames to slice Kenny.
- Rock Beats Laser: Downplayed example. Both sides use 3DMG, but the Scouts prevail over their Hand Cannon wielding opponents using swords, flare guns, good old gunpowder, and a bow and arrow.
- Smoke Out: The Scouts use 3 large smoke bombs (ignited with flaming arrows) to remove their enemies' visibility. They also use smoke rounds to limit the MP's lateral visibility, letting the melee fighters dodge in and out of the smoke trails.
- Spotting the Thread: Rod claims that if Historia reclaims the Founding Titan, she could use its powers to destroy or control all of the Titans and end the war. Just as she's about to be injected, Historia realizes that the royal family had that power for over a hundred years before Grisha stole it from them; so in all that time, why didn't they ever use it to do what Rod claimed they could?
- Waif-Fu: Historia grapples with her father and throws him hard enough to injure his back- clearly the military training paid off.
