First Battle: The Struggle for Trost, Part 1

First Battle is the fifth episode of the Attack on Titan anime. It is produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. This episode depicts the start of the Battle for Trost and the destruction of Eren's squad.

Summary
As Eren rushes to attack the Colossal Titan, it swipes its massive arm across the top of the Wall, disabling all of the cannons mounted there. Eren wonders if the titan has some intelligence because its actions have been remarkably coordinated to cause the maximum amount of damage.

The Colossal Titan then reaches out to grab Eren from the air, but he quickly outmaneuvers it and closes in on the nape of its giant neck. At that moment, the titan releases high pressure steam and disappears before Eren is able to cut it.

He returns to the Wall where he is rejoined by the rest of the graduates who were not able to move and participate in the fight. Another soldier comes by and tells them to begin the planned operation for a breach and the graduates leave the area.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Trost are evacuated while first-responder soldiers cover the breach with an array of ditches, cannons, and nets. They begin a defensive attack to keep the Titans outside of Wall with cannon bombardment and 3D Maneuver Gear soldiers.

At the HQ, Franz and Hannah promise to stay together and Armin Arlelt is scared because humanity has no way of plugging the breach, pointing out that the emergency boulder to do the job has not even been dug out yet. As he trembles and cannot fill up his 3DMG gas canister, Eren tells him to get a hold of himself. As Armin begins to calm down, a shot from outside shows that the titans have begun to enter Trost and all the first responders are dead.

Within the interior of Wall Rose, Dot Pixis, head administrator of southern region (including Trost), is entertaining Lord Balto. After receiving news of the Trost District breach, Pixis calmly moves to leave, but Walto tells him to stay and protect his land. However, Pixis says that he is needed by his men who are sacrificing their lives and walks away.

At the last debriefing, the graduates of the 104th Trainees Squad are incorporated into the Stationary Guard command. To facilitate the evacuation of civilians and prevent the Armored Titan from breaking the interior gate, they are placed in the Middle Guard between the Vanguard at the breach and elite Rear Guard at the base of the Wall.

However, moral is very low with these recent turn of events and none feel it so deeply as Jean, who was leaving for the interior tomorrow to escape such an emergency. He runs into Eren and snaps at him, blaming Eren for wishing to die quickly.

Mikasa moves to break them up, but Eren tells Jean that they have struggled for 3 years now to reach this point and that Jean must survive because he is going to the interior tomorrow. Jean is successfully motivated, but leaves wordlessly.

Mikasa comes up to Eren and tells Eren to come to her if he is in danger. He is about to respond when one of the Rear Guard soldiers tells Mikasa to report with them. She is about to protest the decision when Eren head butts her and scolds her for abandoning her duty as a soldier.

She apologizes, but asks Eren to promise that he will survive. He leaves thinking that he cannot die yet, because he has not seen the outside world yet.

A flashback reveals the graduates' old lecture on Titan biology. Their bodies are of a high temperature and ignore any animals other than human. The instructor goes on to explain that a titan's greatest asset is its vitality. While humanity has had access to cannons for centuries, a titan could often regenerate any damage, including losing its head.

This knowledge perturbs many trainees, but the instructor reveals that titans have one weak spot-the nape of the neck. Heavy damage to this spot will kill the titan instantly and it will not be able to regenerate itself.

The scene returns to the present where Eren and the rest of his Squad 34 await the command to leave. Eren cheerfully says to Armin that they can use this experience to begin racking up kills so that the Scouting Legion will put them on the fast track.

The rest of his squad, which includes Tomas Wagner and Mina Caroline, agree and when they are given the signal, leave HQ with high moral.

As they are traveling through the city, they notice that many titans have already entered the city and suspect the Vanguard of being lazy. Suddenly though, a deviant-class titan leaps out of the air and embeds its head into a tower.

As the Squad 34 watches it, it pulls back to reveal a shocked Tomas in its mouth, who is quickly swallowed. As the titan turns to leave, Eren angrily follows it, hoping to avenge Tomas's death.

He is about to strike when another titan ambushes him and bites off his left leg, causing him to crash into the roof and he lies stunned. The rest of the group move to support Eren, but all except Armin are captured and subsequently eaten.

Armin is paralyzed by fear and unable to move as a bearded titan plucks Armin and drops him into his gaping mouth. Eren hears Armin's frantic cries and remembers a time when Armin showed him an illegal book about the outside world. Armin's grandfather had secretly hidden the book, but Armin excitedly talks about such things as the ocean, lava, snow, and deserts.

While Eren cannot believe such things, he realizes the apparent vastness of the outside world compared to that encircled by the Wall and wishes to experience all that the outside has to offer.

He rushes to Armin and pulls him out before he goes any deeper down the bearded titan's gullet. Eren renews his vow to survive until he can experience the outside world and is about to get out of the titan's mouth when it closes, chopping his left arm off and trapping Eren inside.

The titan proceeds to swallow Eren as Armin screams in horror and in another place, Mikasa senses the disturbance as she heads for her position before the episode ends.

Trivia

 * Animation Inconsistentcy - when the Colossal titan is releasing steam, Eren could not have been able to reel himself in because it has vanished already