WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Attack on Titan Season 4, Episode 27, "Retrospective," now streaming on Funimation, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Falco Grice's Jaw Titan is Attack on Titan's latest glow-up as his derpy-looking mindless Titan form has now changed into one of the best-designed Titans in the series. Things were going from awful to worse in the battle at the port as Reiner's and Annie's Titans struggled to fend off the Jaegerists' Thunder Spear barrage. Despite the risks, Falco leaped into action and transformed into the Jaw Titan for the first time, completely turning the tide of the battle -- despite losing control of his Titan powers.
When a Subject of Ymir is transformed into a Mindless Titan, their new Titan body is often disproportionate and ugly. However, acquiring one of the Nine changes that Titan's form into that of a killing machine. In most cases, a Titan Shifter's Titan body strongly resembles their human appearance. For Falco, however, his Jaw Titan's body seems to have drawn its inspiration from his subconscious.
Falco's new Jaw Titan is distinctly bird-looking, which seems fitting; his introduction in Attack on Titan came while lying on his back, gazing up at a bird and deliriously mumbling about a dream in which he'd been flying. That Falco has acquired a bird-looking Titan -- just when the group is struggling with the prep time of the Azumabito's flying boat -- feels like a heavy dose of foreshadowing.
In a nostalgic turn of events, Falco completely lost control of his Jaw Titan the moment he transformed. Pieck Finger warned him that the first transformation never goes well, as the Scouts in the group well know from Eren's first handful of transformations into the Attack Titan in which he went berserk. Bertholdt Hoover is the only Titan Shifter in the series who was noted to have controlled his Titan during the first transformation. Fortunately the Jaegerists vastly outnumbered the Scouts and Marleyans trying to stop Eren, so they caught the brunt of Falco's rampage.
As for the strength of Falco's Jaw Titan, Porco Galliard is looking more and more like the worst Titan Shifter of all time. The previous inheritor of the Jaw Titan, Porco spent the majority of his time being blasted with Thunder Spears or bludgeoned to near-death by Eren's Attack Titan. Porco's Jaw Titan never accomplished anything noteworthy in any of its time on the battlefield, but Falco's Jaw Titan may have just saved the world by preventing the Marleyans and Scouts from being overwhelmed by the Jaegerists. If an inexperienced Falco can be a one-Titan wrecking machine in combat, the new Jaw Titan should be a force to be reckoned with once the highly trained Warrior Candidate gains control of it.
Though Falco's Titan nearly overpowered Pieck's Cart Titan, the crisis was swiftly averted when Theo Magath seized an opportunity to cut Falco out of the Jaw Titan's nape. Other than the world-ending capabilities of the Rumbling, it's clearer than ever that Titan dominance is coming to an end.
The group of Marleyans and Scouts hoping to stop Eren possesses five of the Nine Titans, and each Titan Shifter had to be helped or carried onto the ship in varying degrees of unconsciousness after the confrontation with the Jaegerists. Falco inherited his Jaw Titan at the worst possible time, considering it's never been more dangerous to be a Titan Shifter than it is now thanks to the advent of advanced weaponry like Thunder Spears.
Falco is currently taking a well-earned rest after saving the day with his Jaw Titan, and hopefully, he'll have better control over it the next time he's needed. After all, stopping Eren from flattening the Earth with the Rumbling is highly likely to result in another battle or two. Only next time, Falco may not have the luxury of an abundance of enemies to compensate for his lack of control. There's only one episode left in AoT's Final Season: Part Two, yet the story is clearly not very close to its ending. It may be some time before fans see Falco's remarkable Jaw Titan in action again in whatever form the conclusion of Attack on Titan takes.
