yevangle

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Here’s the cast walkout on YouTube

P.S. Brennan is the best hype man/Master of Ceremonies.

Oh god I promised myself no bell’s hells meta until c3 ends but my brain is turning the “can she be trusted?” line over and over like chicken at the shawarma shop. because there are layers to that.

more under the cut because i let this run away from me:

so first off, there's the obvious: dorian initially seems to start to address the whole group, everyone who's left in the inn room, but turns and just locks eyes with orym when he asks. orym, who of everyone has the most reason to be biased against laudna right now. orym, who just got into a fight with laudna over the sword that killed both of them and orym's husband and father-in-law. that's who dorian thinks to ask, because he trusts orym not to let his judgment be clouded.

dorian first saw orym again after months of being separated, like, three days ago, and despite how much orym has visibly changed in those months, dorian doesn't hesitate to believe that orym will still be objective. he trusts that orym will be the one to look at this situation and tell him the truth.

because dorian has experience with orym telling him the truth. dorian knows firsthand how willing orym is to shuck his personal feelings in favour of what's true. dorian just saw what he could have become, had orym not stepped in to stop him taking the circlet of barbed vision. he owes the fact that he's alive and beholden to no gods to orym's willingness to be rational and objective in a situation involving a powerful magical item. by his own admission, "i wouldn't be here without you."

so of course dorian trusts him right now.

and there's something to the exclusion of the others, with that. dorian doesn't look to fearne and orym, although that would make sense because he's known the two of them the longest. he doesn't look to chetney, who's proven to be able to get a handle on this with the scream needle compromise. he doesn't look to ashton, who's been extremely levelheaded through this whole mess. he looks at orym, exclusively. he is asking orym, exclusively. not the group, although everyone decides to jump in to answer and then imogen comes through the window to complicate the matter. just orym.

dorian is the kind of person with a lot of potential for darkness in him. he hides it well because he's also deeply kind and friendly, but it's always been there. he's just been through something massively traumatic, and that was after the original circlet conflict back in exu prime. he had his alignment forcibly changed from good to neutral. but even after all he's gone though, orym's alignment is still good.

as much as orym doesn't want to be a leader and prefers to be a protector and follower, he does very well in situations where he takes on an amount of responsibility. when he's in some level of control over a situation, he takes to it naturally. he's a very good babysitter to his gaggle of weirdos. the "can she be trusted?" might have been an attempt on dorian's part to give orym a bit more control here. to reassure him that regardless of anyone else's feelings—regardless of how laudna's reaction might have affected him—orym deserves to be trusted, and he can make a decision that dorian will trust.

back in exu and all the way into early c3, dorian and orym slotted into a sort of parental position in their groups. watching over the crownkeepers' clothes when they went skinny dipping in exu. orym repeatedly steering everybody away from bad ideas. matt even described dorian leaving dariax in zephrah in 4sd as "dad just going out to get cigarettes." there's always been that underlying sense of "we are two of a pair" with dorian and orym. not to say that either of them don't see the others as adults, but they do have that rapport of being the babysitters in the gaggle of weirdos.

that kind of bond is just part of their dynamic. but especially in light of what's been happening while they were separated, and then what happened between them earlier that evening, "can she be trusted?" is a reminder of that bond. orym's been lonely, by his own admission, and one of the secrets he divulged at nana morri's was "i really miss dorian." he broke down crying during his last message through the sending stone, and then again on the bench not a few hours before this whole incident went down.

dorian came to comfort him. he flat-out said to orym's face "i'm here now." he reminded orym that he needs to rely on other people, that he can't always be the one saving everybody else. he gave orym the room to not be the strong one, and told him he has that room because dorian's there to support him. they can be two of a pair again.

he knows orym's been feeling like he can't do anything, like he had to resort to what he stopped dorian from doing with the circlet. and so dorian both gives him a choice to make, something to do, and shows him that he still trusts him unconditionally. "can she be trusted?" also means "i trust you" and "i'm here with you" and "this is how we've always been."

we know from liam in 4sd that orym has feelings for dorian that he's not sure are reciprocated. but even regardless of the romantic element here, dorian and orym have always had a partnership. they have always been two of a pair. the sequence of events leading to "can she be trusted?" is a perfect microcosm of he relationship between the two of them. it's just incredible.

"I'll take his hand and try to pull him inside with me."

What else do I have to give, except for myself ?

Dorian's seventh level Geas was sexy as hell, but what's interesting is that it wasn't really Dorian witnessing his brother's death and going suddenly, uncharacteristically dark. He's kind of always been like this. He's a jovial fellow who enjoys entertaining and telling stories, but he's always had this edge to him where he gets steely if you push him too far.

During the first EXU after he made his deal with her and caught her interest, Lolth began pressuring him to put on the Circlet of Barbed Vision and used a lot of his worst fear and insecurities against him to try and make that happen. It eventually came to a head during the final battle with Myr'atta, Dorian was unconscious and the Spider Queen again began pressuring him to put on the Circlet by saying his faith in his friends was misplaced and a real leader would ensure victory by whatever means necessary. Dorian's response? To tell her to fuck off, and ending the interaction right there.

We got another glimpse of this way back in episode 14 after Cyrus had wandered off during the ball, appearing to be caught up with Emoth Kade who was herself some kind of slime entity such as Dugger (who'd previously murdered Bertrand Bell). Dorian was, understandably, incredibly concerned for Cyrus and during the fight with Lady Emoth he at one point stabbed her and hissed, "Where is my brother?"

Dorian, when under enough pressure and stress, tends towards cold aggression. So it's really no wonder, that after witnessing the death of his brother whom he loves dearly, at the hands of an entity he already has a low opinion of, Dorian's response was to coldly turn towards one the Spider Queen's favourite creatures and cast a Geas to make it "kill [its] mother". Dorian when pushed hard enough pushes back, and by murdering Cyrus the Spider Queen pushed him really fucking far.

have u noticed that Uri was able to freely control the hand of his titan while only half attached to him? ... similar to when earn transformed and was holding the spoon with his titan hand in his 1st few days with Levi's squad... hmmm..

Ooo, good eye! I did notice that, actually:

Now, this could just be Isayama reusing a storytelling element. I feel it is important to note, though, that Uri has the attachment lines on his face though, so his face was attached at some point. Its not exactly the same. Recyclying scenes happens all the time with writers who write long stories. Buuuuut…

We now know that Eren has all the memories of the Reiss Kings (as well as Grisha’s) stowed away in his head somewhere. He has also displayed episodes of random recall on several situations. Its usually related to muscle memory. These include recalling that injuring himself is a trigger to transforming and the ability to use the Coordinate. However, he has also had episode of other recall including something I realized just recently: Random recall of portions of Freida’s memories.

This panel was under debate for something as to why Eren was recalling it and who it was. The character has since been revealed as Freida and Eren re-calling Freida looking at herself in the mirror from Freida’s point of view. This is really important because this was BEFORE having memories unlocked by Rod and Historia in the chapel. Which means Eren does, theoretically, have access to the memories himself. He’s wondering where Grisha is when this happens. And right after he recalls this second panel:

He completely forgets what he’s thinking about. Its almost like Freida is using the Reiss abilities inside his head, feeding him details only when he needs it and preventing him from stray rememberances. (And her eyes, its like they KNOW in that frame. Its so creepy!) In the manga he also has a history of blacking out when attempting to remember anything about his father’s whereabouts. For awhile I thought maybe Grisha programed Eren’s memories with the Reiss ability before allowing Eren to eat him. Now I’m not so sure…

We know that the Will of the 1st King almost seems to have a “will” of its own:

If it is the case, though, that the Will of the 1st King continues to carry on as its own entity in the host, then why would Eren trigger a random muscle memory with the spoon? That conveniently resembles Uri and his arm? I might be reading too much into this. (Unless Grisha’s consciousness also lives on inside Eren and is effecting the recall as well? Whoa, I think I’m getting way too trippy now. A consciousness battle going on inside Eren might be a little too far…or is it?)

The presence of an Ackerman in each is also interesting instance as well:

Once it was revealed that Levi was an Ackerman, it was this scene that tipped me off to the thought that the Ackermans could be a hereditary bodyguard bloodline. Levi instantly steps in between Eren and his own squad to protect Eren much to everyone’s surprise, especially given how he snapped at Eren just moments before (I’ve come to the conclusion that dear Levi doesn’t handle desperation well but that’s a discussion for another time). 

Now, there are other factors to drive this decision, yes. Eren is an important asset. He’s also fresh out of the cadets and still learning the ropes. But the way Levi steps in with no hesitation instead of scolding Eren for shifting out of turn I feel is very important. Even more so now that we’ve seen Kenny decide to become Uri’s bodyguard after Uri shifted in front of him similarly.

Again, the two scenes are not exactly the same, of course. Kenny didn’t make the choice until Uri prostrated himself in front of Kenny where as Levi chooses without hesitation. It could be a storytelling choice to highlight the Ackermans as well as the differences between them. It could be a coincidence. Or could it be Uri’s consciousness recognizing an Ackerman in front of him and trying to secure the protection of the Reiss shifting abilities? Food for thought…

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