The audio is really scuffed, my bad. Probably better to watch this through speakers. Edit: I’ve been getting some comments asking me for my opinions now that the anime changed Eren’s and Armin’s conversation. I think Eren is worse now but at least the Armin line was removed. Edit 2: I didn't include this in the video and it has been gnawing at the back of my mind every day so I'll just pin it. Sorry, I'm an ordinary idiot. The "I promise I'll always wrap that scarf around you" scene was at the time absolutely not meant to be a romantic scene for Eren. In Gekkan SNK vol 3 (2015), Isayama said Eren saw Mikasa as a mother. The scarf scene came out October 2013, 2 years prior. So there you go, I hope this buries that headcanon.
That convo just pulled a Dr. Strange from Endgame to have a cheap cope out of all the plotholes and unexplained alternatives to the rumbling 😂 would love to hear your opinion on it
I would advise to talk a bit slower and more consice, I sometimes needed te rewind to understand you. But other than that - thank you so much for this breath of frash air. You've highlithed all the criticism that I had and even more.
@@MathouManson Mary Sues at least do stuff, granted it breaks the world around them and they're generally insufferable but they're more than just planks of wood. Mikasa only ever does 2 things, kick ass because she's a super warrior, and whine that she loves Eren, that's it, for 4 seasons straight. Watching paint dry is a more exciting activity than following Mikasa.
@@hysloth3137 Bruh JJK sucks ass, but that doesn’t invalidate his point, I see all these AOT fans hyping the ending coz it was another plot twist they didn’t see coming, and then they say braindead thinks like “did you expect a happy ending” not realising that what we got was the happy ending…
@guilhermeteodosio40 honestly she doesn't need parallels with either Historia and Mikasa. Just being a tragic character turned to pure evil is better. She should've been the main villian of the story not Eren. A tragic character that started all of this ends up becoming the big bad guy. Erenn makes a lame main villian/antagonist anyway. Removong the Stockholm Syndrome/love for King Fritz bs also. Her intention to curse the Eldian and use Eren to commit the Rumbling was out of pure hatred of humanity and what happened to her.
@@Spantzcatdog yeah, I agreed that. I think Eren is a cool villain though, making a 3 season built up to a villain who is the main character is really interesting idea that I haven't seen anywhere before. Making Ymir his manipulator kinda removes the agency of his character but the og story already does it so making her the final villain would've been away cooler ig
With how many people there are praising the ending and not seeing anything wrong with it, I sometimes start to feel like maybe I'm the crazy one. It's nice to see videos like these, especially since I'm not always able to put into words what exactly it is that I see wrong with the show.
Ex-fucking- actly. I watched the ending and I was like ‘…😐…’ did I miss something?? And then I was watching video after video trying to make sense of the ending but nothing made sense, nothing clicked. I didn’t hate the ending nor Isayama until I connected more with these type of videos. Everything this guy talked about are questions I asked but dismissed and just kept pushing forward because I was like ‘nah isayama has something in stored for us’ and then… nothing.
Listen man, I agree, but iseyama himself has stated that it took him a very long time to think of the ending, like really really long, so he had no clue and forgot a buncha stuff prob so he wrote thia
@@Personalzida12139 I understand. But to me, he showed in seasons 1 to 3 he was a 'genius' for how well built and written everything was (though I still don't understand well Ymir's decision to leave or not chosing Erwin;). I mean, Seasons 1-3 were not just a struck of luck, just a good idea he had and developed, there's true talent and thoughtful craftmanship in what he did. Many episodes left you thinking 'man, the guy is a genius, on another level'. And then appears S4 with so many problems, there's not that quality in the story anymore except for some highlights.I'm talking about the quality of the writing, not even that the story didn't go the way I' wanted. So, it really puzzles me how he got from a 9,5 to a 2-3 (I'm not listing here all the problems, already mentioned in this and other videos).
@@Personalzida12139 He didn’t forget, he actively changed the ending because he thought that if Eren didn’t end up with Mikasa then people would hate the ending
throw rocks and girls then you can consummate marriage with them. That's basically what isayama is trying to portray. Seriously what's the point of historia looking dead and lifeless when looking at the farmer if she willingly let him drill her. What's the point of the original final panel of aot? What's the point of the eren and historia conversation? What does historias pregnancy even have to do with the plot besides delaying the arrival of levi and others, in which didnt need the pregnancy? Literally what was the implications being made as a result of historia being nailed. Her pregnancy was literally brought up again in the middle of the rumbling which would mean it's something that we should also take note of yet it lead to nothing. Historia had been completely irrelevant yet isayama tries to make her relevant by using even more irrelevant plot points. The original final panel which was already good as it is was also ruined due to what isayama did. Also why is Grishas in one of the people who support armin? He of all people knew that eren had to execute the rumbling and avenge his mother, verbatim from the anime. He of all people was the one orchestrating the idea to have zeke be a warrior to infiltrate marley and reclaim the founder, literally that was his entire goal and eren kruger.
personally for me, problems with the story started arising when isayama brought out the intensely stupid cop-out card that is time manipulation. time shenanigans are almost universally poorly done in stories when brought out halfway through or near the end. it was going so good and the story was told in a way that got the 'history repeating itself' idea across. seeing into the past was effective and made sense for a long time. actually changing the past is so lazy in many ways. it's like he ran out of plot twists in a story already full of them. it did not need something so against its grain. AOT honest to god had everything and just needed to end somewhat decently. not borking the entire plot and ruining established character personalities or over-writing main characters. the final dialogue is just the cherry on top of a shitty sundae.
aot was already ruined when it became just a typical war,racism,slavery show they are so many fiction that handles this theme perfectly than aot, aot could have been handle it better if the worldbuilding was expand it was all just about marleyans and eldians
@@binatog123Honestly the introduction and concept of Marley as a whole was when the franchise slowly started losing me. Any charm it originally had in the earlier seasons flew out the window once it became another WW2 anime.
dawg im 100% convinced that while yams was writing the last 1-2 volumes of the manga some random eremika fan barged into his house, killed him, then started writing a fanfic which became the ending we got
I like to believe it was in part pressure from Kawakubo (Isayama's editor), who worked on a couple of other manga that reportedly have very trash endings.
eremika fans are truly the worst. not at them bullying jeankasa shippers off of social media bc they cant cope with the idea that after eren's death mikasa might have moved on etc. and its not even abt any ship - ship who you want, but the way they're defending eremika and are so toxic abt it gives incel. like everything from them wanting mikasa to stay single until her death to them now calling jean a creep and all sorts of names (even tho eren liked jean and saw him as a friend, mind you) is sooo insecure and incel-y. theres nothing romantic abt canon eremika. its sad at the end, for sure. but thats abt it
We can't know for sure. However, Japanese fans seemed to be very Eremika leaning (yes, this is a stupid thing to say but I don't know how to put it in any other way) Maybe isayama was just really pressured to do a ending which would please these fans
Sales in braindead western countries who make up 80% of the audience. Good writing is controversial North of Mexico and Turkey, Where all the 2-digit IQ college kids rule the narrative.
I am usually high thinking but this shit was so ass. Eren looks lost and without real purpose WTF was the entire series for. The ending was supposed to be so good it would want you to rewatch the entire series again and again but instead it made me want to never touch this shit ever. So sad
@@JohnnyBitcoin did you honestly think this series would have a happy ending bro what are are stup@d or something moreover its ending is good because it shows the bleak future that history repeats itself, all of you aot fans are the problem because they all wanted an ending where everything is solved and everyone lives happily like that is never going to happen in a war
@roukerasati9611 Id disagree heavily. I feel we got a mediocre ending to a great show. I think if this was for any other show rn, people wouldn't be as mad as they are now.
@roukerasati9611 Honestly, I respect for at least sticking to his guns and not changing it. I still love AOT, but it's kinda sad seeing the entire Fandom fall apart and become super divisive over the ending. I can see what he was trying to go for, but it's clearly rushed no matter how you cut it.
@@theretroshogun2961 I just wish some of the really glaring mistakes had been fixed. More dialogue changes at least could have fixed the "No! I don't want that!" scene for example. You're right, it is rushed. I recall seeing that with the final chapter and just hope future manga and comic writers learn from his mistakes.
Your love for the series and the way you put all of this into words is truly admirable, thank you for doing this work, it's not easy, specially with the amount of detail you put into it, you can't pull these type of videos without knowing well about AOT and without thinking about what was put aside. Awesome video
@@gazelle_diamond9768 So? At least its evidence alongside other evidence in the narrative to back up how this ending was bad. All I see from ending defenders is just headcannons
@@gazelle_diamond9768 Um, the quotes from Isayama in relation to Eren's freedom being differenciated from Armin's, which I see EDs conflate the two a LOT to justify the claim that Eren is a pyscho. Also, like I said, the video also used previous scenes from the narrative to show the backstory, context, character development to explain why the ending (or just the Rumbling arc as a whole) just destroys what the story has already set up, or just backtracks or retcons them. So like I said, so what if its stuff from the wiki?.As long as its relevant to his points, and how it shows that the ending just ruins lots of things prior in the story, that thats alright. And I say, its pretty relevant, and makes sense. You can disagree, and thats alright too. I wont hate you for it. Just simply stating what is in the story.
I really wish action writers/artist would stop trying to put romance in their stories because they legit don't know how to write them. Mikasa's love was obsession. Eren showed absolutely no feelings to her. They were raised as brother and sister and never discussed anything more than that when they became older. But somehow in the end they were in love. Everyone talks about what a cool character Mikasa is but she's not even a character. This isn't just a writing problem this is a whole AoT problem. We know nothing about her other than she loves Eren. She had no thoughts or opinions of her own unless Eren has stated them. This would be really cool to explore and give her more character and have her break free of this but no it's treated so normal. She's one of the worst written female characters I've ever seen which baffles me because AoT is full of well written women. I guess when you're in a romance with the main character you just get no effort put in to yourself, you just have to be pretty.
Exactly, you said it yourself. Realistically, it's logical to think that when a dude saves your life by risking his own after both of your parents are murdered and you're left traumatized, not sure how to respond to such immense grief cuz you're a kid, of course you become super obsessed with the dude. It's more realistic, that you develop feelings for him and fall in love after you start to get to know him. That's literally what happened for Mikasa. Trust me, I've seen people do many illogical things in love despite the fact that they are ready to die for that person, the character writing of Mikasa is amazing. Mikasa wasn't a mentally healthy kid when she fell in love.
@@Papaty25 Mikasa didn't gradually fall in love with Eren. She even denied the person he had become. There was always a static attachment, an obsession to someone that ignores you. This design choice made her one of the worst characters in AOT in terms of line quality and made her look like a mentally weak character. Everyone in the AOT universe has some kind of trauma that shapes their decisions and persona but it doesn't limit their vocabulary to only one word.
@@bblunder what? Mikasa lacks depth? Bro, you need to watch AOT again. Her character is *a traumatised girl who is super obsessed with a guy cuz everyone she ever knew is dead and how she gets through life and hardships without Eren at her side. When all she wants is to protect Eren * . Though Isayama fucked the story in the end resulting in many character inconsistencies and plotholes.
@@bblunder Mikasa doesn't know anything about anyone or the world. Eren is the guy she spent most of her childhood with. How do you expect her to be a politician? Lmao
Jesus, Annie, just… wtf was going on there? We literally had that moment of Gabi being forgiven by Sasha’s family, realizing Gabi was a victim of the war, and yet Kaya tried to STAB her! She did not forgive Gabi right then and there, there was a very real human reaction there! But Annie? Not even a “reason you suck” speech, no hostility, not even telling her and her father to go to hell, who does she think she is? No Levi threatening “When this is over, we’ve got a score to settle,” no karma in Annie’s father dying (seriously, would anyone be sad if she didn't reunite with him? Was anyone rooting for that outcome, even her fans, she gets to see her abuser?), nothing. It wasn’t even “they have a bigger enemy to fight, they can’t afford conflict,” or “they all realize they did horrible things so they are equally bad (which they are not, Paradis was never spinning people like yo-yo’s),” it was just deliberately avoiding it all together. The story was hoping we forgot or hadn’t rewatched the Female Titan arc.
Armin obliterating an entire port and killing thousands of people, civilians included, is a lot worse than her spinning one soldier like a yo-yo and killing the others that let's not forget, were attacking her too.
@@dextoppable By the moment they realized how powerful Female Titan is, they were running for their lives. There was no need to go after them and kill them, not to mention her sadistic, brutal way of killing everyone, her reaction after she got caught in Stohess. Armin killing people at port is different score to settle. Imagine if Armin killed Reiner's mother, Falco, Annie's father, Piecks family. Do you think they would just sit down and forgive? It's not about nameless random people with no connection to cast, it's about Levi's squad, maybe even his pupil or beloved.
Aot Main theme is how you should always love your abusers : Annie with her Dad Ymir with king Fritz Mikasa with Eren Historia with the bully farmer who threw stones at her
@@300XeonThe soundtrack besides voice acting and animation is literally the only good thing about the soundtrack. Forget about the writing. The writing went crap after Season 3.
"For Eren, rather than a lover, Mikasa's presence is more like a mother to him. The love towards a mother is considered valuable [precious], however at the same time, there are annoying parts as well [laugh]," Isayama said only to Retcon it in the last episode 😂
@Spryzen139 bro your video is so well made its crazy. I wanted to watch your other videos but..... then I noticed this is your only video. It's rather insane to have THIS much quality in your first video. You've got tons of potential. Great work honestly❤
This video is everythin that I feel about the last arc of the series. Such a huge fumble for such an otherwise beautifully written story. Idk how ending defenders can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that sum people have issues with the ending. It was always going to upset someone but it’s crazy how they make their own head cannons and run with it & if we don’t agree then we “didn’t understand the story”. We’re upset because we loved and understood the story, the same story isayama seemed to have forgotten most of in the end. I can’t make any headcannons to save the story for me and this ending will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I invested my childhood, 10 years of my life. I worshipped this series and the ending just gave me a bad psychedelic trip. I'm depressed and AoT's extremely bad ending made me feel another emotion for the first time in years
@@lasgio_ I hear u bro. I’ve been following it since I was 13 in 2013. Just sucks when something u loved so much and had such high hopes for let’s u down. I know it shouldn’t be that serious but it just sucks to think about what coulda been instead of what we got. Even the anime I was excited for a bit but then eren said the whole “it cuz I’m an idiot” thing and i thought “yo isayama hates us”
Working passionately on something gets harder as more time passes by, I feel like 10 years will change how isayama felt about attack on titan, in the end he lost the feeling that aot originally gave and ended up making a half asses ending, personally I liked the ending because I was still able to drive meaning from it, I have my critics but it's a better story than having everyone die in the end or having a happy fantasy where everyone's problems are solved. It's grounded in reality in the sense that tragedy is inevitable and we must cherish eachother and fight for a better world. Aot ending doesn't give me satisfaction, it allows me to look back on our journey and appreciate life.
@@mystery785 I’m not mad at this take. I can see how people would be able to have a take away from this ending. I think isayama kept building the story organically to the point where it didn’t match his original ending but he still tried to use it anyway. Idk sum of the retcons make me think that’s the case but its just too much shit for me to look past. I respect ur take on it tho
Commenting twice because this deserves more views. YES ABOUT ARMIN. He's so unbelievably disappointing in s4. Everyone celebrates him becoming the Commander when essentially Levi takes over.
Not only that but he only becomes the Commander for the final fight and his dumbass plan was just to zerg rush Eren, so much for the bright Tactician, even Levi cane up with a better plan. Levi carried the scouts so hard it's insane.
Armin didn’t know how to stop founding Titan Eren and Ymir with infinite titans and powers within minutes therefore he’s not qualified to be commander or a brilliant tactician. That’s what you guys just said.
LoL commande of what?? A commander of traitors and enemies? The Yeagerists were always the real successors of the Survey Corps and the only reason Levi, the man who saw all his comrades die in order to free the people of the island, didn;t join the Yeagerists, was because the show had a leftist agenda of promoting nationalism as evil. It was in every way against Levi's Character to do anything other than joining the Yeagerists. He didn't even need to be against them to kill Zeke. He could have done it after Eren got his way with him. Also, Levi not killing Annie is the most illogical and unrealistic thing i've seen in my life.
@@Musipict Levi, who fights for what’s right the entire story would then fight to destroy all of humanity, doing exactly what was done to them to the outside world, the vast majority of which being completely innocent in regards to this conflict to the point where they wouldn’t even know why they’re being killed? No. Him doing that is what would be a complete 180 of his character. You weirdos that wanted our main characters to all become false pride having nationalists are something else. Thank goodness the author isn’t as brainwashed as you are.
Thought I was the only one to find this entire arc problematic. People are like, the last 20 minutes ruined everything and others are praising it for a masterpiece. Rarely do people consider the whole and how not only the ending but the whole arc leading upto it was a massive misfire. All I wanted was a story that made sense, that was narratively consistent, and we get this incoherent, messy, plothole filled shit.
Fair point. Now, please go ahead and write your own story and make sure it is a masterpiece from beginning to end. It is so easy to judge and critique as a consumer. We can keep assuming things, and we can keep complaining all day. At the end of it all, that is all we will get out of it. Shingeki no kyojin still remains a generational anime no matter what you, I, or any other person will say. To me and many others, it was an ending that delivered the message Isayama had to convey. Humanity sucks and we keep repeating our mistakes, inevitably heading to our doom. Edit: Not meant to instigate anything. It's just an opinion, just like yours.
@@alexanderthegreat235 the point that humanity sucks, violence is inevitable, the world is a cruel and beautiful place has always been the case with this show, that much has already been hammered in our heads from the very 1st episode. It's not the message it's the execution that's repetitive and dull. If every consumer had to create a masterpiece in order to attain the rights to criticise one (that other people claim to be), then how do you think that's gonna work? People who loved it gets to rest and ones who didn't have to start working on creating one?? Yes it's easy to judge, and it ought to be judged, if something is mindlessly appreciated or hated then what justice are we doing to the work of the creator.
@nicasioz189 It is fine to judge it if it gives you peace of mind. All I was trying to say is that it will not change anything. It has ended, and that was it. I personally felt content with the ending because the conflicts/plot lines that I wanted to see all the way through the end were resolved. I never said it was perfect, I was just saying it feels pointless to spread hate online about something that is a done deal. It's fine if you dislike or even hate it. Just don't push that onto others. I had to dodge social media for several weeks due to people who wanted to spoil it to us, anime onlies, because they were displeased with the ending. You can share your opinion just like I'm sharing mine here, but no one has to be radical in doing so. Just like you don't have to change your mind whilst reading this, I shouldn't have to be forced to change my mind about something just because some Joe on the internet wants me to hate something they did (not referring to this video in particular. It was a well put - personal - opinion)
@@alexanderthegreat235 dude I don't want you to change your opinion. I too didn't read the manga, heard about the hatred manga readers had with ending, and I too spent days away from social media to keep my perception of this show objective. And I specifically commented on this video because I did want to express myself with the people who shared my opinion, it's difficult being on the minority. It's not about spreading hate in my case atleast, it's coping with the hurt and disappointment with something that used to be so precious. Im actually glad people could enjoy and be content with it because I couldn't. I just could not be indifferent to it. I expected so much more, the world building, intricate details into how the Titan powers worked, great characters like Erwin and Kenny, beautifully crafted set pieces, truly deep yet logical, specific yet abstract... These are the qualities that made me love this show.. I mean this one of a kind show was the introduction to the world of anime.. this show receives so much of hate because people feel betrayed. But you cannot just let it go because its over, past lives in us, it's not something you can easily discard. Love or hate it, it stays with you.
@@nicasioz189it takes time to digest and understand the ending... I read the manga and i wasn't that happy nor sad.. But then after some time passed by I kinda understood eren again overall and actually the ending kinda made sense in a way... Their execution could have been better... For that i give them 7/10.. Could have done it way better than this
In the final chapters I agree, but what makes it so frustrating is that he's shown previously that he isn't. Historia and Ymir to me have one of the most beautifully written connections in anime, absolutely implied at points to be romantic. And it isn't forced in, or cringe, or overshadowing the main story but actually easily coincides and narratively displays many core themes. You could even argue this to a lesser, more fanon extent with Levi and Erwin. Gabi and Falco weren't badly done either, at least it had some build up and was pretty lowkey. It just furthers my confusion (and pain) at the absolute fumble that is the rumbling arc, and how all of a sudden these terrible romance plots are shoehorned in for no reason. Like, did he accidentally make Ymir and Historia such a heartrending romance? How was he so good at writing subtle romance plots before just to be completely disastrous at it towards the end? It was like reading bad fanfiction. Actual pain. I used to love aot
@@megan3256 I believe the implied romanticism between Ymir & Historia you are describing was accidental, unfortunately. The only well done relationships depicted in the story were those of strong resolve between close friends, so much so that it tinged on romance; however, all of the relationships that were obviously intended to be romantic were depicted as toxic, abusive, one-way dynamics, to the point it makes it painfully obvious Isayama does not understand how to write compelling romance between characters.
A few well written critiques I've seen are "AoT: The Obvious Reason Why The Ending Failed", "Extensive breakdown of the ending: Too many narrative flaws to be unintentional" (but does have some emotional influence to the writing), "When someone asks what was wrong with the ending:", and a few more I don't have on me rn. These are great because in a debate it's a lot easier to reference a written critique rather than a video. I also encourage you to check out Isayama's interviews, especially the ones about Eren and Mikasa's dynamic; forcing an Ending Defender to either admit Eren loving Mikasa was a retcon or call Isayama a liar is always pretty funny.
The real problem is that alot of ending defender acting like they have to follow the "message" or something just because it was told by a guy - which is Yams. They don't even have their's own vision of things, but blindly follow others just because they were told.
@@Ksmsusneusmeusjs You saying that people who thought the ending was good, only thought so because they couldn't comprehend it, is a statement I would consider quite ironic, as it is actually the other way around. Those who hate the ending are the ones who aren't able to understand it and its message.
If you paid attention, it’s more about the series as a whole than the ending. Because majority of the flaws he’s pointing to happened since the beginning. Basically, Attack on Titan is a badly written series
AOT ending is one of those endings that leaves u feeling confused because you're unsure how to feel. But the more you think about it, the worse it gets.
Lmao this is so true. For the most part I was satisfied after watching the ending, but I had written a lot of notes about plot points that didn't make sense or were not explained. The more I googled, the more I found that there was no explanation, and there were other things that weren't explained or didn't make sense.
@@habibpinesMy head canon for that is "Ymir and Eren controlled them so they wouldn't kill them but would only come close". Or just simply, "Ymir". Better than no explanation, I guess.
I appreciate all the effort that went into making this. I had forgotten so much of the story and characters over the years. How you even managed to gather all this info is baffling to me. While I have to agree with most of your points, it really hurts to admit just how badly this series ended. I genuinely wasn’t sure how to feel about the end. In fact I wasn’t sure how to feel about so much of the series because it jumps all over the place. Keeping up with a myriad of different arcs and plot lines and characters is daunting, which makes your work here all the more impressive. Thank you for making this video and shining a light on the series and its inconsistencies. I hate to admit it, but, you’re right.
Bro he omits information to make half his points. You’re a prime example of how people like him can get you to believe his dumbass. Ending haters forgot/didn’t understand the story, like holy shit.
I appreciate the themetic elements the author was trying to dictate from a philosophical perspective but that perspective ultimately tarnished the story. I’ll give an example, Isayama wanted to themetically highlight the cycle of war and how it often repeats but in order to do so he’d have to contradict his story(which he did). I feel Isayama cared more about the message behind the story than the story itself.
What’s really frustrating me is all the people essentially pretending all these other problems don’t exist because the anime had some marginal “improvements” to the final chapters
Well making Armin react to 80% was an improvement, not gonna lie. Also whole conversation about this topic except Eren's reply "Because I am stupid, garden variety tool idiot who got a hold on too much power". OH YEAH, THAT MAKES SENSE, HE WAS JUST A BAKA.
There were no 'improvements'. They removed the part where armin thanks eren for destroying 80% but add a line where eren says he did this because he was just a baka. They added more years to the destruction of paradis(seems like cyberpunk era) than in the manga, but that removes the realism part of the ending. How did paradis manage to stay for so many years in peace when they mentioned that conflict between the two has only been inflamed by eren's actions?
I think Isayama wanted to make Historia and Eren canon and be their kid, but probably because many fans are obsessed with Mikasa he change it and dropped that plot line. I think mangaka should be confident to write a story that goes against Fandom wishes, like write not the story we want, write the story we deserve. But many want to play safe and so betray their own work with that
@@justadummy8076 I have heard that comment a lot, but I forgot where did it come from. Do you remember? It helps to disprove ED's claims that Isayama actually planned this from the start
You know. Everytime I see some new takes or developments within the AoT fanbase or recent anime for example, I always come to change my stance on the ending thinking that maybe I’d be able to appreciate it more. Then I come back to these critiques and realize that no, the ending is still as incredible flawed and poorly executed as it was when it was originally written and released. Nothings changed much at all
This is a good way of thinking, seeing what both sides of the coin have to say about the ending and analyzing if they are right or wrong. I have been a "hater" of the ending since the manga ed and even myself I was impressed on the OST and amazing animation MAPPA bring to end the series, they made an incredible work for sure!! But the conveniences and plot holes are still there, they tried to change a little bit the convo with Eren and Armin, but it's too late to save his character. I like it a lot and it's sad to see Mikasa crying in the end, but I can not accept the bullshit that is the writting not only in the final chapters, I will say in the final arc since the rumbling started.
@@greenpig1175aot used to be as close to perfection as shonen can get, its only natural to hold the ending to the same standard. Besides, the ending isnt really enjoyable anyway, its corny and childish.
@@WIsForWeaboo yes it is, its even released in a shonen magazine, it may have some adult themes but after how they were handled its clear what the demographic is.
This is genuinely the best video on this app. Thank you for explaining everything perfectly and also acknowledging the arguments for the ending being good and debunking them or just explaining why it’s either not well written or just makes no sense.
Thank you. I’m genuinely disheartened that people watched this and didn’t see anything wrong with it. Makes me feel like they saw this show as just any regular anime and didn’t critically think about any of it.
@@arminkir9389 No, says the person who is able to critically analyze and use proper grammar. Do not respond back to me. I won’t be reading or replying. I don’t have time for ignorance or childish arguments. Also the phrase is quote unquote and is not necessary in text form.
The scale AOT grew on was way over these people's heads, you really have to go deep to understand how the ending is bad, that tells us that most of the people don't care about how peak this fiction could've been, but it all went to waste
Incredibly made video and the best one I've seen on the series' ending. The video's structure as well as the arguments and conciseness of the points made within were beautiful. There were a lot of things I didn't know of, like Eren's wording differing with Historia and Mikasa. It actually gave me more of an appreciation for set up and elements of the story prior to the ending., which makes it all the sadder to me it ended up the way it did. Subscribed! If you decide to make any future content I will definitely tune in.
You literally said every issue and in a good and digestible format. Its so insane seeing Anime Onlys call this ending a "masterpiece". Feels like they living in a different reality
I hate how some people are defending this half-ass of an ending. Even calling it perfect or saying it couldn't be better. It hurts me to see the anime that I loved for years fall apart.
@@theretroshogun2961 Yeah, well, people can also express that the ending is shit and don't understand why others praise it. "It's just a different opinion". Yeah, well, the opinion is "It was perfect and you don't get it!" Great argument.
This is probably the best analysis I've seen on Attack on Titan's ending. Unlike other evaluations I've seen that come up with really weird reasonings to justify issues or just straight up overlook them; you perfectly explained every issue I found with Attack on Titan's final arc and even brought my attention to some new ones (that contradiction in Keith's character completely flew over my head). And most importantly you back all of this up with evidence directly from the story, something that I barely see when it comes to defending the ending. I'm really impressed that this is your only video currently when it's this well written. Fantastic work, I'd love to see you do more analysis like this in the future.
Brandon Sanderson makes great points in his writing lectures that can be used to analyze why Attack on Titan's ending is not good and unsatisfying. During the progress of a story, the readers want a "map": they want to know the direction they are going and the progress they are making through the story. They want to FEEL the progress. They want to see the story building toward something, and they want to find out what that "something" is. Let the reader know that a steady progress toward an inevitable and exciting goal is happening in the story. The writer do this by identifying what questions the reader wants answered and that will be the reason they are turning the page. (Isayama never answered the readers wants answered.) If you make a "promise" in the book, but start taking the story in another direction, then readers get bored because they feel like they are on a "diversion" from the actual plot. That's why the progress needs to be cohesive with the promises you make as a writer. If you are writing a romance, you need to indicate progress is happening, so plot out little points to indicate that is blooming. (Isayama did not plot out little points to indicate Eren's romantic feelings to Mikasa, thus it did not feel romantic, even to me as a shoujo loving, romance films and bridgerton enthusiast) Brandon Sanderson also mentioned payoff. It's the feeling you leave the reader with when they finish your book. You make good on all your promises. Sometimes the final sequences/plot isn't the original promise. It can be the character growing, plot expands, etc. A lot of readers will have problems with a substitute a lot of times. If you promise them a "toy car" and give them a "toy plane" they won't like that unless you REALLY convince them that what they really want is the substitute, even though they THOUGHT they wanted the original. Payoff should flow naturally with the progress. It should give them everything they were promised at the beginning PLUS something else and new. Give them a toy car AND a plane. Isayama did not make good on his promises, and did not really convince some readers enough that they wanted the "toy plane" or the substitute. Instead, we were told that this toy plane was what he promised all along, when in the "map" there was a toy car and the promise of more. That's why AOT's ending is unsatisfying.
I think also a big problem with the romance part in general with mangas is, that authors have since the start set in stone who is going to be the love interest but don't develop it at all and when another character comes and they got better romance between the main character than their original pick, most authors don't want to take the step and chang it to them and instead insist the original love interest, who never got any chance for any development, is the best pick, which most of the time just isn't
Bro, I watched dozens of videos with finale being debunked, but yours is just next level. Those parallels between Ymir & Historia you found gave me goosebumps. Also, the idea you suggested of making the AoT a story about diplomacy failures and upper class interests leading to world-level tragedies seems really promising. It could even be the ultimate recursion to post-apocalyptic world we had been introduced to in the beginning of the manga -- I mean the one with no life outside Paradis. Anyways, brilliant work; like, subscribe, money transfer :)
This is a theory I've heard before as well! Then again look at all of those goofy things. Ymir just be throwing sh*t together and mouthing "Here ya go!" Abnormals could just be a random occurrence because it all looks so haphazard. Her play-doh skills are lacking
Was that not always the case? I saw Ymir in the paths creating the Titans(pure or not) with the “sand” that was shown. I interpreted that as she was literally bestowing the power to each individual titan, even allowing them to move. The only way Zeke could control titans is because Ymir saw him as an authority figure commanding her. Even if he didn’t know she existed.
Totally agree. To me, the biggest red flag that the story was irredeemably doomed was Falco transforming himself in a literal Falcon Titan. And the excuse is that "he was seeing birds at that battlefield where he almost died" lmao. Had Annie not decided to stay at the ship everyone would have died then and there. But it would have not made any difference anyways.
Lmao for real. Just because it was foreshadowed doesnt mean it wasnt an ass-pull. Yeah it may not have come out of nowhere. But there is still no logical or sensible reason why
@@randomusername3873because the "beast" traits come out just when you become one of the 9 shifters. There is no pure titan from Zeke's spinal fluid that has any "beast" traits. I think that makes sense. I don't see any inconsistency or problem here with this part of the story. And it's not just a random thing, we can see shifters gaining traits or characteristics from other shifters, and we have two clear examples other than Falco. The first one is Eren that gains the armor trait from presumably Reiner's or previous armored users spinal fluid, and the second one is Annie, which is literally the fucking mimic titan
"How poorly it's executed" is something a lot of people don't understand. Almost all defenses to bad writing is that "it's realistic or could make sense". That doesn't equate to good writing, good characterization, or a good ending. Writing requires more than that. The whole point of themes, and character arcs, and plot points is that you're promising your viewers the story will deliver something along these lines. In a mystery story, there will be lots of questions. In an action story, there will be a lot of fighting. In a sport story, there will be sports. In AoT, there was foreshadowing, themes of war, fragility of life, oppression, racism, but the story chooses to end without answering many questions, giving us more questions, and the answer to it all was romance. What if Mikasa hadn't been the one to kill Eren? Would Ymir not stop then? This isn't even addressing the weird actions of certain characters. This is solely just looking at what happened to the writing. Payoff is important! If it's not relevant to the story, don't present it and especially don't continually present it as if it's something worth considering.
I agree and disagree at the same time. There are stories that trick into delivering one thing but give another, and it still works out. I'd agree that realism doesn't always mean good writing, but i feel most people understand why realism in storytelling is duch a prevalent thing. I dont mean world wise, but rather characters and dialogue. Honesty, the only big thing i would change is Eren winning in the end, but have Pardis still destroy themselves. It would actually make Eren's actions worth it from a reader experience, but reinforce the themes that Eren's actions were in vain. The route of Genocide doesnt solve anything, and that would've put a neat bow into everything.
Bro commenting about writing when he hasn’t written anything as famous as aot. My guy, it basically took his entire life to write this series and yet people want to criticize story holes (if there are any) and contradiction when that’s not the point of the story. It’s actually sad that people like this video and this comment decide to turn to hatred for a show with or without imperfections. Did you enjoy the series? Did it impact you? If not, then why did you even bother finishing the series?
@@mr.atomictitan9938Dude, people don't praise effort, people praise results and if the results didn't deliver it needs to be criticized so the creator makes better next time. Do I acknowledge his effort? Of course. Am I satisfied with the results? Of course not, because everything he was building up could been amazing, but it ended up being dissapointed. What you're asking is just to consume and shut up, well I'm sorry things don't work that way when it comes to storytelling or anything in general because if it was that way then a lot of things wouldn't be the way they are if it wasn't for those observations.
@@rodrigoa.oviedogarcia8139 everyone is quite entitled to their observations and opinions but those don’t necessarily mean they are the correct or right way. I absolutely respect constructive criticism when it merits progress not boasting about a show you dislike. Sure you are disappointed but could that matter less? If you make a claim back it up and if you cannot consider each case (in the case of AOT we have a finite amount of cases to consider) carefully then all your doing is proving people who are blind to reason that your a hateful or ignorant person. This video has essentially made sparse cases and incomplete thoughts. Therefore, how can I listen to a person that cannot even complete a sentence. I love the show but even I have questions about how some parts make sense, but this rarely bothers me because those are usually insignificant to the point of the story in general.
Finally a video that acknowledges that the entire rumbling arc ruined AoT and not just chapter 139. Even a lot of ending haters fail to acknowledge this.
I think the problems started appearing by the time Eren spoke in the table with Armin and Mikasa, that conversation seemed to be hinding something at first but in reality was that stupid.
It wasn't even after the time skip, everything after the time skip is still really good, it's only after Eren frees Ymir (The Rumbling Arc) that Isayama systematically dismantles every plot thread he was building up.
@@akaneki7234 he cooked for a decade then when it was ready he tripped over and got all the sauce on the floor just like that chili scene from the office
@@daizenmarcurio an ending doesn't need to be wholesome or a tragedy but a logical conclusion to all the events that happened in the story. A few more things could be improved but it was a still an average "OK" ending in my opinion. People who say that Eren's effort went to waste, it's in humanity's very nature to have conflict. Without conflict we can't have any progress. History will always repeat itself some point in time.
I just finished the anime yesterday, and was left so disappointed and confused.. I voiced my frustration and sadness on my private facebook, and my cousins gf wrote a long comment about why she really disagreed with me. Which is fair. But then when I asked about all the plot holes, listing almost every one you pointed out here - silence. Then I told her that I was shocked to find the fanbase so split, basically being in one of two camps; either you praised the ending like a god sent, or you absolutely hated it and thought it was garbage. I don't hate the ending, but I don't like it either. I'm just left so confused.. like, did the ending defenders get something I didn't? Some of my favorite animes have been stories like Re:Zero and the Monogatari series, it's not like I can't follow a complicated plot. Why did so many cry watching the ending, while I just sat there, baffled sometimes even laughing in disbelief at the ridiculousness of the characters? Just like everyone else, I waited 10 years for a conclusion. I absolutely LOVED the first 3 seasons. Despite not loving the fact that humanity being on the brink of extinction wasn't the case, and titans being humans all along. I was still hooked and wanted to see it to an end. And now I'm just left with this empty feeling of confusion and disappointment.. I almost feel like it's the ending of GoT all over again. Am I in the wrong for feeling that way?
You are absolutely right when you feel this way. I believe that most people who loved the ending were simply casual anime viewers or took one of those (debunked in the video) theories as the truth.
Do damn true. S3 had me still hooked but since s4 came it went down the rails. BIG TIME!!! For me ,AOT ends when they go sea the ocean. Period! The show could have ended there and I'd be more happy than ever. I so badly wish I never saw s4 and the rest of that garbage or even knew it existed
I was on the fence about the ending but you bring up some very good points. Its a shame because it seems there were seeds of a better ending hidden in the ending we got.
It rounds out everyone's character arcs well, it presents a good conclusion to the conflict and is overall a satisfying ending. What else do you want?!
@@gazelle_diamond9768The Rumbling is stopped by a Deus Ex Machina. Zeke's character ends with him being convinced by a single memory that his entire ideology is wrong. The series was revealed to be a result of a Bootstrap paradox and this isn't even mentioning the extreme plot armour that some of these characters have.
@@shivill2236Wrong. Incorrect. Irrelevant because of the way the timeline in the world of AoT works. As for plot armor, I'd argue the series uses the opposite, where a ton of characters die just for the sake of the plot without any logic about it.
@@gazelle_diamond9768 1. Alright, at what point was it established that the former titan users could regain consciousness? 2. Aot has a lot of Plot Armour, this ending is no different, the cast were saved by a Deus Ex Machina in the form of the past titan users regaining their consciousness.
@@shivill2236 1. Established? At the moment it happened. The same way that Eren turning into a 600 m tall and 1 km long hallucigenia titan was established the moment it happened. The same way that Eren being a fucking titan shifter was established the moment you saw him crawl out of the titan's back. Does it check out with the way the magic system worked so far? Yeah, kinda. Titan shifters had always been able to glimpse into their past users' memories, meaning those had to still exist somewhere. That "somewhere" being the paths, the place all Eldian life, both past, present and future, intersects. The exact limits of the magic in AoT is never really explained, because it is supposed to be a big mystery, but considering we already have a connection to the past via the inheritance of memories, the dead titan shifters existing in the place that doesn't _have_ death or time... is as reasonable as anything else in the series. 2. Hold on... this is literally just your first point. And it doesn't even make any sense. If this is what you consider "plot armor", then I dare you to name any piece of media with main characters that DON'T have plot armor.
You're right and I hate that you're right. I got into AOT right before the 2nd to last part came out and caught up with 2 months to spare until the ending for the anime and wish I didn't. I wish I ignored all my friends telling me it's good, the worst part is they were all manga readers saying "Oh you'll like the ending!! Ignore them!! They don't get it!" just to learn they're wrong and the ending sucks dick Great video btw :) besides how I had to turn my speakers up to 500% to hear you. You summed up basically how I felt about the ending besides how you missed the part where Mikasa was just Eren's pitbull.
this is the most well organized, creitical and respectful delievery of ending hate essay i have seen within the last 2+ years of aot ending rampage. Thank you for being the video i will point people too for now on, when they ask, "why do you hate it so much"
@@EnderBroadcast- no he didn’t he literally pointed almost every single retcon and inconsistency im dying to know how you’ll refute any of those points😂😂😂
You literally addressed almost every single issue I had with the final arc, to a T! Never ever before Ive seen it all summarised so good like that! Thank you so much! You rly saved me the work of doing a giant post.
@raidenstark4964 tbh, the animation, voice acting and music are really the only good things AoT has left. The writing not so much. AoT had potential to be special, but it all of it was ruined due bad writing final season
I honestly liked the ending, now I’m an open minded person which Is why I’m here, watching this video trying to get the other perspective. I still like the ending but I do decide understand its flaws, it’s the same way that I hate gabi but also understand that her point was to mirror Erin I can admit she’s not objectively bad compared to literally the rest of the cast but I still don’t like her and I know it’s cuz I was attached to Sasha
Maybe they're not emotional planks of wood like y'all and have better attention spans. Ending haters are usually people who struggle seeing someone cry out of frustation like Eren did. But so many elements like the insane foreshadowing, world building and compelling characters who are actually written like humans (with flaws) are what make AoT a masterpiece in story telling. Very little animes can achieve that.
Because it's made by an "architect" writer. It's planned from beginning to end unlike, for instance, game of thrones, created by a "gardener". In aot the plot > the characters, in got the characters > the plot. They move it forward
Despite the scuffed audio, I do think this is among the better videos about SnK's ending. Your no-nonsense attitude helps; I get turned off by people trying to be sensationalistic.
Unpopular opinion: the dubbed version got the sentiment of some of Eren’s feelings better. In the scene where he says “because I was born in this world!” The English dub version was “because the outside world is my birthright!” Which I thought sounded so badass the first time I saw that scene.
@bogjesrbin484 it's not a good ending. It's a generic Disney-ish ending. Since when AOT story was black and white? The ending literally tells you who the bad guys are and it's not the world, it's Eren. But he's also the good guy you see because he became a mass murderer for the sake of his friends. And who are totally grateful he killed millions for their sake. Perhaps, this is good enough for you. But this ending is a mess in its tone, in its message and its narrative. If genocide bad, why make Eren a tragic hero?
@@rivenskyallonce no, I did. It’s just you didn’t watch the anime properly. Because last time I checked, erens closest friends killed him to stop the rumbling, even though they knew, that the world was preparing to commit a genocide of eldians on the island. But they just couldn’t accept that outcome of erens plan. And you say it’s white and black?
My god... I am not kidding, this is one of THE BEST videos on how bad AOT's ending was. The entirety of season 4 left me unsatisfied. I was just confused about so many things being contradicting/unexplained. Then, I went on the internet and got swarmed with Eren fanboys and "AOT is a masterpiece"-believers, making me question if maybe I was too stupid to understand the story just like they said? Maybe it actually is good? So I started to try and find explanations (=excuses) for parts of the story that left me confused. You video not only validated me in my initial thoughts about the series and added new inconsistencies to think about, but also destroyed the very excuses for the plotholes that I made up in my head to try and convince myself that it wasn't that bad and that maybe I am the problem. Thank you for putting me back on track. You are amazing and deserve WAY more followers and recognition!
If iseyama wanted to go the genocide route it shouldn’t have been a half assed 80%. Make it 100, the whole moral of the story is the endless cycle of violence and it’s obviously apparent that even with a completely homogeneous society that conflict will arise and war is inevitable. You can keep literally everything else just change the fucking number, kill (at least) most of erens friends, then have Eren remove the titan curse so he lives out the rest of his life in mental turmoil yet simultaneously being satisfied that he carried out what he truly wanted.
Conflict and war will never end. Ending haters know that. Eren's goal was never to end Conflict among humans, he wanted to end the racism and cycle of hatred against his island people. And Isayama wrote AOT in such a way that either the world genocides Paradis or Paradis genocides the world. He finished 80 percent rumbling and the remaining 20 percent destroyed Paradis. Eren did not even secure his friends' future because the yeagerists on the island will kill them in an instant LOL. Eren is a failure and ARMIN is a joker. The formation of Alliance is the dumbest thing in fiction because they want to protect a world that hates their island
@@raidenstark4964 fax, people seem to forget that falcos friend literally said that some countries outside of marley hate eldians even MORE than marley. What a fucking joker of a ending 🤦♂
@@raidenstark4964 The ending is so funny because it was building up to argue about how cyclic violence would eventually lead to the ultimate end, i.e. genocide or some equivalent, and yet it proved that genocide would have been good for the Eldians because by leaving 20% of the world, that 20% rebuilt and then nuked the Eldians out. Absolute comedy.
It’s genuinely so bad. The only reason the majority of the fans like it is because they are anime consumers. Inconsistencies, the story not taking itself seriously, the poor dialogue, characters having very little response to extreme events, and the trope of love are all things that are common in shonen writing. In the span of a few chapters, AoT went from being a debatable seinen to being an objective shonen. And that’s where it fell
Aot Main theme is how you should always love your abusers : 1. Annie with her Abusive Dad who used to beat the shit out of her she still love him 2.Ymir with king Fritz who basically burned her village killed her parents and cut her tongue and rpe her she still love him 3.Mikasa with Eren who called her a slave and said he hated her and committed the worst crime in history of mankind she still love him 4.Historia with the bully farmer who threw stones at her she still love him
I wish those annoying ending defenders would actually take time to watch this well made video. You are backing up your claims by using actual source material and don‘t rely on weird headcanon. Well done man🙌🏾
I watched it and still think it didn't ruin anything for me. I walked away thinking about what it COULD'VE been rather than just straight-up hate. I still love the show, but the ending is a prime example that endings are vital to a story.
@@FoodudeThank you, I thought I was the only thinking that. Of course Aot isn’t perfect and has inconsistencies, but most of his points in the video were pretty much opinionated and viewed through a single perspective. The video did not change my opinion though, I found the ending great
Ending Defenders: Eren's 19! Of course he's breaking down over Mikasa! Also Ending Defenders: Eren killed two grown men when he was 9. Of course he's a psychopath!
@@bradmotz4755 I think he is making fun of ending defenders who use stupid excuses to justify the bad writing we got. Eren being a psychopath and crying over Mikasa are out of character for him. Eren killing 2 grown men does not mean he is a psychopath but rather he will use violence towards those who try to hurt him or or his friends, who hate him for no reason, who try to take his freedom away. But in the ending it is implied that he is just a crazy psycho so they use it to justify that. And the age thing to why he suddenly started being pathetic and crying over a girl.
@@essjay0907 okay gotcha. I skipped the "Eren's a psychopath" section in the video and didn't understand how those two points connected. Thanks for explaining for me:)
@essjay0907 I'm going to be honest. Eren has been always kinda on the deep end , even with the kid excise thrown aside. There early points in the show where he absolutely takes pleasure in killing titans with big grin plastered on his face. Personally, him being a psychopath has more merit to it than I thought ngl
@@theretroshogun2961 bro there is a difference in killing titans and killing innocent humans, He never showed any interest in killing innocent people ever. I don't remember the show completely but when he learned that regular titans are humans, he did not enjoy killing them then. He cries infront of Ramzi and begged for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He did not enjoy killing innocent people, he just thinks that is the best and permanent solution to the problem. Doing genocide to watch a view from a book is a different level of crazy. And even if that is the case then he should not have been shown as a pathetic guy who just lost his mind with power. And all his friends see him as a hero and cry on his grave forever.
@@DundGEren desire to protect paradis to the point of annihiliating his enemies vs armin's conviction to save the world and pay the consequence. That is what the final chapter should've focused on since its literally the conflict after season 3
@@TruePeaceSeeker Erens desire was never to protect paradis. He wanted to kill all Titans so he can be free from their torment and explore the wonderous nature outside paradis. It was always personal. He just happened to be on paradis side. So even if this was his ideology, this oversimplified "battle of ideologies" can't work since they are not compatible with the complexity of the world of AOT. Even Eren aknowledges that! Him going through with killing everybode doesn't grant him freedom. He will die after 4 years due to Ymirs curse, Armin shortly after or both get eaten so that their powers transfer to new people, since the yeagerists would do that for their Nation. Historia will be used as a breeding machine to continue the royal blood so that the power can be used further. All eldians will either be enslaved under the power of the founder, or he hides and dies and the people of paradis are free and internal konflikt will breed war as even with Titans, corruption, violence and differences in worldviews caused conflict. So the Titans will be used to fight each other, as anyone wants to be like Eren, not backing down. Niiiiiceeeee. The seasons before showed how Eldians behind the walls are NOT in harmony and in a lot of conflict. What will happen if there is no outer enemy to "unite" them?! So Eren can't win since his goal is unatainable in a world like that. That is the entire point. He can't change human flaws without enslaving their very will. Paradis will fall! No civilisation is eternal. Also in S4 Paradis already became fashist, meaning the nations own people become enemies if they think differently than the accepted ideology of the yeagerists. What stops the yeagerists from labeling a non follower as "no true Eldian" after Eren dies, creating a second class of citizens to be treated like dirt? That is the nation to fight for? Really? Another hellscape of a society? In conclusion: how could Eren even win if he had this ideology? As I see it, making it a mere black and white battle of two clashing ideas doesn't do the worldbilding justice. Not in the slightest!
@@DundG so you really think a shipping war is more compelling than an ideology war? love over freedom? sounds like a downgrade of theme when compare to previous season where romance is not really prevalent.
@@code122 "so you really think a shipping war is more compelling than an ideology war? love over freedom?" What freedom? TheRyanthunters talked about: "Eren desire to protect paradis to the point of annihiliating his enemies vs armin's conviction to save the world and pay the consequence." Where is freedom even mentioned as ideology? So what ideologies are YOU talking about, that is suppoesedly superior to love? They don't seem to be the same as TheRyanthunters
100% agree. I remember watching AOT in 2014, as a 13 yo... It's so sad to see this ending. Such a wasted potential - war, titans, genocide, moral dillemmas - and we have tree and love in the end? Wth, Isayama?! And Levi deserved better than... THIS. All his commrades, his squad, Erwin - died for nothing. Really, really disapointed.
@@samuel9294 Because Eren apparently deciding to do an 80% Rumbling, which completely contradicts why Eren does the Rumbling in the first place (and I mean a full 100% Rumbling), results in the absolute carpet bombing of Paradis from the outside world in the future. Also, its implied that the hallucigenia survived, which further implies the Titan powers survived. So all the characters we've grown accustomed to, that we've watched all these years (Erwin, Sasha, Levi Squad, Floch etc), all of their sacrifices mean nothing in the end because the home they all were fighting for, Paradis, just gets destroyed in the end, and like I said, the Titan Powers could have survived, so they never really defeated the Titans. Completely ruins everything from seasons 1-3.
@@theemissary1433 no, the sacrifices didnt mean nothing, eren bought a lot of time before paradis got destroyed, between 1000-2000 years, otherwise they would be gone a lot faster.
@@theemissary1433 also, the titan power is gone, ymir curse (titan power) was destroyed, thats why all shifters disappeared and titans become human again.
@@samuel9294 The island still destroyed in the end by the outside world, regardless of how long that destruction was stalled for. So in the end, my point still stands. All the sacrifices our characters made were for nothing. In fact, this didnt need to happen had Eren just had the balls to stick with the original 100% Rumbling. Then there wouldnt be any more hostility towards Eldians that would lead to the island's destruction. Also, its been implied that the last scene of the show/ extra manga pages of the boy finding Eren's tree, which looks a lot like Ymir's tree, is showing that the Titan powers did survive, and that theory is further supported by the fact that the hallucigenia was never seen again after the Battle of Heaven and Earth, like what the video said. We dont see its dead body or whatever to get confirmation of its death. If this theory is true, then that makes the sacrifices of our characters even MORE meaningless, especially for Eren because his home gets bombed in the end, and the Titans are presumably still around. Great ending, guys, totally
@@sanctokalibero nah man. I been at it for 2 months. cant come up with anything. hard to write a character that embodies freedom when im basically just a 9 to 5 slave. thats probably why it was so hard to write erens character.
I just watched the ending last week. Although it was tragic and on its face I would've accepted it as that. It didn't feel particularly earned. What was Eren's goal? To destroy the rest on humanity? Didn't succeed with that. To protect his friends? A good number of them died either trying to help him succeed or stopping him. To end war/conflict? Nope, he just delayed it a bit. To save Paradis Island? That gets blown up in the future. To rid mankind of Titans and all of the turmoil and conflict that comes with it? Nope, that's going to happen all over again. He is either a one note villian, who wanted to destroy the world because he simply wanted to or he is a prisoner of fate, trapped by a perspective that no humam can truly understand. Either way, I can't say I really care for either reason. I would love to see a well thought out/civilized discussion between two people on opposing sides of view to the AOT ending.
I just watched it myself and I want to add to your comment with my counterpoint on Eren. Being as I just watched it, I have to still think about it to develop my final conclusion but I can tell you what my immediate interpretations of what I saw. In the scene with Armin and Eren talking when Eren finally reveals he’s just an idiot who got power, that was the biggest takeaway for me. He’s not a mastermind who had extremely thought-out motivations or someone who understood all the consequences of his desires, he just wanted something really badly and had the power to do so. He could see his entire future but he couldnt change it because he just didnt want to. He justified it as protecting his friends because that made sense, but in reality humans do things for complex reasons. I think people wanted to see Erin as much smarter and like an unwavering icon of his own beliefs but he is an incredibly human character who made mistakes, he just had so much power that his mistakes were multiplied by the millions. I think overall there were a lot of powerful messages about nihilism and the meaning of life in the last part. Armin talking about how even if there is no meaning to anything other than the desire to stay alive, humans still feel meaning in anything on earth. Even if the world follows the same path of war and destruction, it doesn’t change humans wanting to live and find meaning. That was my takeaway on the boy and his dog finding the tree in the end, the tree and whats inside were symbols of the strong desire for life forms to live despite everything going on in the world, and its up to interpretation on what form that would manifest as in the future. Even if you still don’t like the ending I hope me sharing my views can at least make it more interesting to think about :)
My god bro cooked with this video For real though this is is probably the best explanation video for why the ending was bad that I’ve seen yet. I’m subbing for that on its own. Actually explained everything wrong with the ending clearly and concisely. Even cooked with which OSTs he put on each section. Right now I can’t even think of anything he missed. To be fair though I bet I will, I swear this ending has an unlimited number of plot holes, character assassinations, retcons and shit writing😂
Seeing analyses like this make me feel as dumb as Eren did in his final convo with Armin. Maybe it's because I watched the anime gradually as new episodes came out, and with the large gaps between seasons (or parts of seasons), I just forgot some details. Maybe it was the shear amount of loose ends left at the end that made me miss a bunch of them (I did clock how unnaturally kind everyone was to Annie, but missed a bunch of other details the video mentioned). Either way, I didn't think the ending was that horribly written until seeing this video, and I can't believe how much of the horrible writing went unnoticed by me.
same lol, I knew the ending was not the greatest (especially with the insane level of plot armor) but this video really opened my eyes, to take a masterpiece and just completely derail it like that.
Thank you so much for this video, I was sure I was going crazy, there are so many people not only calling ot good but perfect. I specifically liked that you focused a lot on characters, unresolved plot threads, themes and tone rather than plot holes. Like plot holes are really bad but I would have forgiven it if he characters were well written. Really good essay, specifically loved the section on Ann and armin. They are so shockingly badly written and no one acknowledges it.
Ending defender are just coping at this point. They think that symbolism can be an argument against logical storytelling. The logic behind Ymir waiting for Mikasa for 2,000 years because she wanted to see her example of a decision she couldn't make herself in the case of Fritz is stupid, because the story forced the determinism card into the outcome. Considering that Ymir is a being that transcends time she should know how the world timeline, time, and fate actually work. Therefore Ymir should know that Mikasa's decision was not a decision, but predetermined outcome written in stone, and despite seeing this "example", she herself would never make a similar decision in the case of Fritz, because it is written in stone that she would never do so.
Bruh, if anyone is coping it's you guys. Look at this fucking comment section where everyone is going on about "I thought I was crazy, but I am SO glad there are other people who agree with me!"
@@gazelle_diamond9768 Dude, just watch the video. You already have your answer. I too, used to be just okay with the ending, until I took the advice to look back at the series as a whole, and remember the character arcs and motivations, themes, and plot of the story and then I realise how botched this ending was. Never in my life did I think that I would lean towards Yeargerist views in the span of a few weeks, due to me to just looking back carefully at the story prior to the ending. This video just articulated what I saw into a much clearer format. Genocide is obviously wrong. Eren knows this. People who criticise the ending know this. People who defend the ending know this. But the story has been shaping to the point where its an "us vs them" situation. One shall stand, and one shall fall. Eren wanted to resolve this conflict through a much more peaceful solution, but when we saw how negotiations were just... impossible, the Rumbling was unfortunately the only option left. Literally no one criticising defends genocide as a concept, but when looking at the situation at hand, you got to admit, the outside world had it coming. Whether you support the Rumbling or not, you cannot deny that this was simply a consequence of the world's actions. A turn from the Paradisians to counter the outside world's turn in this cruel game of war. If the outside world wants to mess with the bull, they'll get the horns. And oh boy, did they get the biggest horns. One that will rumble the earth, and all the nations shall pay attention to the reckoning that is to come.
The only good thing about the ending is that future mangakas can look at AoT and go "yeah, so this is how i'm definitely NOT supposed to do the ending"
@@Sn_da_1st keep moving forward brother especially with the new released opening the last titan and ending see you later both contains hopium especially the opening
@@TheComfyCouch310Noo. Guys we failed. But there still something, I will never stop hoping. There is volume 35?, a movie?, a OVA? I don't know, I don't care. I want the AnR
This video is so bittersweet to me. Like, you've basically put into words everything I've been thinking about since I watched the finale, but man do I wish it could've been different. Aot is like a 10/10 show for me but this ending really has me so down, even weeks afterwards. Atleast there are some people who agree with me, so thats nice.
I really cant believe that the ONLY thing isayama fixed in the anime was "thanks for becoming a mass murderer" literally everything else was worse... appereantly eren is just an idiot who got too much power.. aot was my favourite series ever and yams completely ruined it, it really hurts my heart
@@ziyadfara4760full rumbling, it doesn’t make sense for Eren to be for anything other than a full rumbling. Either the rebellion dies fighting against Eren & the rumbling happens, or Eren dies against the rebellion & they stop the rumbling,but either way, Eren must be convicted to a full rumbling. Eren must be the father of Historia’s child, if he survives it makes the “last panel” of the guy holding the child saying “you are free” make sense. But if he survives he has to live with the fact that he killed all of his friends for his people.
To further discredit the "Eren is a psychopath who kills people because their existence contradict armins book", just look at the end of Season 3 part 2 where the scouts come across a crawling titan. Floch is about to kill it but eren stops it, calling the titan a fellow patriot. Eren who once swore to destroy all titans, recognises the titan is harmless and leaves it alive. Basically showing that eren is willing to spare his enemies if they don't pose a threat to him. Eren doesn't care about the scenery itself, rather the freedom that comes with it. "If someone tries to take away my freedom, I won't hesitate to take away theirs"~ Paths eren So it makes absolutely 0 sense for eren to rumble the world because it didn't look like armins book. Implying eren would rumble the outside world even if they didn't pose a threat to paradis. If he only cared about the scenery as 139 wants you to believe, he would have killed that titan because it's mere existence ruins the scenery from armins book.
To further strengthen your point. He also understood that the titans are not the enemy (which also proves that Eren himself has changed and developed). When Eren is arguing with Floch in the royal ceremony he encourages Armin saying that beyond the walls are freedom. But then he remembers Faye being eaten by dogs. He doesn't think about random civilians in Marley or an urban landscape. The hatred towards eldians is what stood in the way of his goal.
@@sableyesundaygaming2016bruh the the final movie of the anime. Armin asks “Why did you do it?” Eren: I don’t know. I wanted to see this sight/ scenary
One of the best analyses on AoT that I've seen. Not enough people talk about how Isayama threw the Eren-Ymir connection into the trash. The very first chapter name (To you, 2000 years from now) parallels when Eren becomes the first person to acknowledge her as a human being who deserves to be free, and not a God (From you, 2000 years ago). Eren embodies everything that Ymir desired to be but failed to be in her real life. Eren fights for freedom no matter the cost, to a maniacal degree. He believes in and fought for justice at times where everyone else would accept the injustice before them (Season 1 particularly shows how Eren is unique from other humans in this way). It would make sense for Ymir to see Eren and choose him to be the final attack titan wielder and be the one to meet her. She also cared about freedom (freeing the pigs), but she never fully realized her freedom - she died without having the sense of self-worth to believe that she deserved to fight for her freedom. Eren was put in a similar extreme, yet he still chose to fight for the freedom of himself and his people even if it meant using his powers to kill others, something that Ymir never got to a point of doing. Mikasa being retconned into the ending as if Mikasa and Ymir had anything in common (or even worse, that Ymir's connection to King Fritz is even remotely capable of being compared to Mikasa's connection to Eren) is downright character assassination. Despite Eren not loving Mikasa and not reciprocating her feelings for him, Eren undoubtedly cared deeply for Mikasa as one of his close friends. Eren was willing to put his life on the line to protect Mikasa (not that she needed him to given her powers, but the sentiment was always there). King Fritz outright abused Ymir in the worst ways possible, explicitly giving absolutely no fucks about her beyond what she could do for him. The comparison is downright ridiculous. Surely Ymir could've found a better person to parallel her situation with King Fritz in 2000 entire years, if it was all really about breaking free from love (which is flat out a worse plotline than the Eren-Ymir freedom angle anyway).
Eren can control Dina in the past that means he can control every pure titan in the past. He could've saved so many lives and come up with a better solution. Paradis would've had 5 shifters in the first episode if Eren used his brain and change the past. Dina's Royal colossal titan, Grisha would've had Attack and Founder, and 2 more pure titans would become the female and the armored titan
![[2K] Arcane Season 2 Episode 6 MEGA Reaction Mashup | アーケイン](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9MtL0Z31G50/mqdefault.jpg)
The audio is really scuffed, my bad. Probably better to watch this through speakers.
Edit: I’ve been getting some comments asking me for my opinions now that the anime changed Eren’s and Armin’s conversation.
I think Eren is worse now but at least the Armin line was removed.
Edit 2: I didn't include this in the video and it has been gnawing at the back of my mind every day so I'll just pin it. Sorry, I'm an ordinary idiot.
The "I promise I'll always wrap that scarf around you" scene was at the time absolutely not meant to be a romantic scene for Eren. In Gekkan SNK vol 3 (2015), Isayama said Eren saw Mikasa as a mother. The scarf scene came out October 2013, 2 years prior. So there you go, I hope this buries that headcanon.
Sounds fine in headphones
This video had me it absolute bits fam! Very well written and your delivery is impeccable 👌🏾.
You on Instagram?
Thank you for making this.
That convo just pulled a Dr. Strange from Endgame to have a cheap cope out of all the plotholes and unexplained alternatives to the rumbling 😂 would love to hear your opinion on it
I would advise to talk a bit slower and more consice, I sometimes needed te rewind to understand you.
But other than that - thank you so much for this breath of frash air. You've highlithed all the criticism that I had and even more.
The last chapters were a fanfic written by Mikasa
Exactly!
By Jean
What do you mean by mikasa I don’t think she wanted to kill eren
Mikasa is the most boring character ever,just there to be a mary sue
@@MathouManson Mary Sues at least do stuff, granted it breaks the world around them and they're generally insufferable but they're more than just planks of wood. Mikasa only ever does 2 things, kick ass because she's a super warrior, and whine that she loves Eren, that's it, for 4 seasons straight. Watching paint dry is a more exciting activity than following Mikasa.
Aot fans don't care about the details they only care about the plot twists and the foreshadowing that they find in edits .the ending is so bad .
you got a jjk pic, I'll hear you say this in like 3 months after the manga is done.
@hysloth3137 lmao jjk ending sucks but even before it had issues
@@hysloth3137
Bruh JJK sucks ass, but that doesn’t invalidate his point, I see all these AOT fans hyping the ending coz it was another plot twist they didn’t see coming, and then they say braindead thinks like “did you expect a happy ending” not realising that what we got was the happy ending…
@@justadummy8076 The ending was good for what it was definitely ain't as bad as you guys claim it to be.
@@okayfine3728 As long as you don't claim its a masterpiece, then solid opinion. I still think it's atrocious tho
Armin: "I spent my entire life wondering what was beyond the ocean. Thank you for destroying everything that was out there"
Eren…what a man you are…
what was beyond the ocean was trying to kill him tho lol
@@GregSmithIII Armin has max charisma stat. Eren should have just let him cook
Can you really be safe inside your walls when you discover you were the monster all along?
Yeah, that kinda sucks
Historia being the one chosen by Ymir would make a whole world more sense than Mikasa
Ymir was a fucking mistake as a character.
@@Spantzcatdog totally, I like the idea of the paths but Ymir's story as a whole feels so first draft-y
@guilhermeteodosio40 honestly she doesn't need parallels with either Historia and Mikasa. Just being a tragic character turned to pure evil is better. She should've been the main villian of the story not Eren. A tragic character that started all of this ends up becoming the big bad guy. Erenn makes a lame main villian/antagonist anyway. Removong the Stockholm Syndrome/love for King Fritz bs also. Her intention to curse the Eldian and use Eren to commit the Rumbling was out of pure hatred of humanity and what happened to her.
@@Spantzcatdog yeah, I agreed that. I think Eren is a cool villain though, making a 3 season built up to a villain who is the main character is really interesting idea that I haven't seen anywhere before. Making Ymir his manipulator kinda removes the agency of his character but the og story already does it so making her the final villain would've been away cooler ig
@guilhermeteodosio40 not manipulating him but pretending she cares about Eldians,Paradis, and humanity as a whole
With how many people there are praising the ending and not seeing anything wrong with it, I sometimes start to feel like maybe I'm the crazy one. It's nice to see videos like these, especially since I'm not always able to put into words what exactly it is that I see wrong with the show.
^THIS
Ex-fucking- actly. I watched the ending and I was like ‘…😐…’ did I miss something?? And then I was watching video after video trying to make sense of the ending but nothing made sense, nothing clicked. I didn’t hate the ending nor Isayama until I connected more with these type of videos. Everything this guy talked about are questions I asked but dismissed and just kept pushing forward because I was like ‘nah isayama has something in stored for us’ and then… nothing.
This
In retrospective the show is sunk for its story. Time kills poor writing always.
@@mooncrow2447 that’s what I was thinking. He wrote so much even he got lost.
I can't believe the person who brilliantly wrote S1-3 is the same who wrote S4. That's the biggest unsolved mystery of AOT!
Listen man, I agree, but iseyama himself has stated that it took him a very long time to think of the ending, like really really long, so he had no clue and forgot a buncha stuff prob so he wrote thia
@@Personalzida12139 I understand. But to me, he showed in seasons 1 to 3 he was a 'genius' for how well built and written everything was (though I still don't understand well Ymir's decision to leave or not chosing Erwin;). I mean, Seasons 1-3 were not just a struck of luck, just a good idea he had and developed, there's true talent and thoughtful craftmanship in what he did. Many episodes left you thinking 'man, the guy is a genius, on another level'. And then appears S4 with so many problems, there's not that quality in the story anymore except for some highlights.I'm talking about the quality of the writing, not even that the story didn't go the way I' wanted. So, it really puzzles me how he got from a 9,5 to a 2-3 (I'm not listing here all the problems, already mentioned in this and other videos).
@@Personalzida12139 "Think of the ending" he just completely stole Code Geass' ending 💀
@@Personalzida12139
He didn’t forget, he actively changed the ending because he thought that if Eren didn’t end up with Mikasa then people would hate the ending
George Lucas once made 3 great SW movies, then on the 4th installment made the phantom menace....
Christa settling down with a farmer and stealing half the plot relevance is based imho
It's Historia.
Its like he changed his mind lin the last moment and was like: you all thought it was eren? SIKE, ITS A RANDOM FARMER
throw rocks and girls then you can consummate marriage with them. That's basically what isayama is trying to portray.
Seriously what's the point of historia looking dead and lifeless when looking at the farmer if she willingly let him drill her. What's the point of the original final panel of aot? What's the point of the eren and historia conversation? What does historias pregnancy even have to do with the plot besides delaying the arrival of levi and others, in which didnt need the pregnancy? Literally what was the implications being made as a result of historia being nailed. Her pregnancy was literally brought up again in the middle of the rumbling which would mean it's something that we should also take note of yet it lead to nothing. Historia had been completely irrelevant yet isayama tries to make her relevant by using even more irrelevant plot points. The original final panel which was already good as it is was also ruined due to what isayama did.
Also why is Grishas in one of the people who support armin? He of all people knew that eren had to execute the rumbling and avenge his mother, verbatim from the anime. He of all people was the one orchestrating the idea to have zeke be a warrior to infiltrate marley and reclaim the founder, literally that was his entire goal and eren kruger.
@@-kenjo-421 in game of thrones terms , Arya killed the night king just to subvert expectations 🤦
personally for me, problems with the story started arising when isayama brought out the intensely stupid cop-out card that is time manipulation. time shenanigans are almost universally poorly done in stories when brought out halfway through or near the end. it was going so good and the story was told in a way that got the 'history repeating itself' idea across. seeing into the past was effective and made sense for a long time. actually changing the past is so lazy in many ways.
it's like he ran out of plot twists in a story already full of them. it did not need something so against its grain. AOT honest to god had everything and just needed to end somewhat decently. not borking the entire plot and ruining established character personalities or over-writing main characters. the final dialogue is just the cherry on top of a shitty sundae.
aot was already ruined when it became just a typical war,racism,slavery show they are so many fiction that handles this theme perfectly than aot, aot could have been handle it better if the worldbuilding was expand it was all just about marleyans and eldians
For me, after the history between Marleyans and Eldians (I believe it was shown at the end of season 3), it slowly started to go downhill.
@@Musipict How so?
@@binatog123Honestly the introduction and concept of Marley as a whole was when the franchise slowly started losing me. Any charm it originally had in the earlier seasons flew out the window once it became another WW2 anime.
@@sissysovereign1294 how many ww2 animes are there again?
dawg im 100% convinced that while yams was writing the last 1-2 volumes of the manga some random eremika fan barged into his house, killed him, then started writing a fanfic which became the ending we got
some alien from space, read aot, became an eremika, and killed yams and became him
I like to believe it was in part pressure from Kawakubo (Isayama's editor), who worked on a couple of other manga that reportedly have very trash endings.
Lol I’m in tears
eremika fans are truly the worst. not at them bullying jeankasa shippers off of social media bc they cant cope with the idea that after eren's death mikasa might have moved on etc. and its not even abt any ship - ship who you want, but the way they're defending eremika and are so toxic abt it gives incel. like everything from them wanting mikasa to stay single until her death to them now calling jean a creep and all sorts of names (even tho eren liked jean and saw him as a friend, mind you) is sooo insecure and incel-y. theres nothing romantic abt canon eremika. its sad at the end, for sure. but thats abt it
We can't know for sure. However, Japanese fans seemed to be very Eremika leaning (yes, this is a stupid thing to say but I don't know how to put it in any other way)
Maybe isayama was just really pressured to do a ending which would please these fans
I'm convinced that Isayama intentionally nuked the story. As for why? I guess only Ymir knows
Maybe he rushed because the anime already produced "the final season" while he still writing the manga
banger😂
@@richard488 but like it was so easy not to fuck up this bad though. the story was at a point where it was writing itself.
Sales in braindead western countries who make up 80% of the audience.
Good writing is controversial North of Mexico and Turkey, Where all the 2-digit IQ college kids rule the narrative.
Brilliant comment!
Clickable time stamps
THE BATTLE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH - 0:46
EREN'S PLAN - 4:23
EREN'S DETERMINATION - 5:31
EREN'S FREEDOM - 8:13
EDEN'S TRUST - 10:07
"EREN ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS FRIENDS" - 11:05
"EREN IS A PSYCOPATH" - 11:55
HISTORIA - 13:01
MIKASA - 18:42
YVID - 21:52
CARLA - 25:02
"THAT PANEL' - 29:01
EREN'S OBJECTIVES - 31:38
THE ALLIANCE - 35:45
OTHER UNANSWERED QUESTIONS - 43:13
CONCLUSION - 45:37
It's in the description anyway but you know I appreciate the effort
@@Spryzen139 I appreciate *your* effort in making this marvelous video
worst thing about the ending is all the "deep thinkers" trying to convince themselves, and me, that it was good
There are still lots of great themes and ideas that were executed beautifully but I do think the ending could have been better
@@WhATUpmAN301I honestly fully agree with this comment, thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking
I am usually high thinking but this shit was so ass. Eren looks lost and without real purpose WTF was the entire series for. The ending was supposed to be so good it would want you to rewatch the entire series again and again but instead it made me want to never touch this shit ever. So sad
@@JohnnyBitcoinsame man. I thought I was gonna watch AoT but after I let it settle in my head I just don’t think I can
@@JohnnyBitcoin did you honestly think this series would have a happy ending bro what are are stup@d or something moreover its ending is good because it shows the bleak future that history repeats itself, all of you aot fans are the problem because they all wanted an ending where everything is solved and everyone lives happily like that is never going to happen in a war
I think why we're all mad about the ending is because if it was done correctly AOT would've been the greatest anime of all time.
Instead? It's like GoT season 8 all over again.
@roukerasati9611 Id disagree heavily. I feel we got a mediocre ending to a great show. I think if this was for any other show rn, people wouldn't be as mad as they are now.
@@theretroshogun2961 Agreed, really. I loved the show but what in the actual heck was that ending? Why did they feel the need to double down on it?
@roukerasati9611 Honestly, I respect for at least sticking to his guns and not changing it. I still love AOT, but it's kinda sad seeing the entire Fandom fall apart and become super divisive over the ending. I can see what he was trying to go for, but it's clearly rushed no matter how you cut it.
@@theretroshogun2961 I just wish some of the really glaring mistakes had been fixed. More dialogue changes at least could have fixed the "No! I don't want that!" scene for example. You're right, it is rushed. I recall seeing that with the final chapter and just hope future manga and comic writers learn from his mistakes.
Your love for the series and the way you put all of this into words is truly admirable, thank you for doing this work, it's not easy, specially with the amount of detail you put into it, you can't pull these type of videos without knowing well about AOT and without thinking about what was put aside. Awesome video
B-b-but pointing inconsistensy about your favourite show out is hate!!1!1!!😡🤬😤 Hes a hater!!1!!1!1!!
Yeah... except he pulled all his shit from a wiki.
@@gazelle_diamond9768 So? At least its evidence alongside other evidence in the narrative to back up how this ending was bad. All I see from ending defenders is just headcannons
@@theemissary1433 The fuck are you talking about? What evidence? What headcanons?!
@@gazelle_diamond9768 Um, the quotes from Isayama in relation to Eren's freedom being differenciated from Armin's, which I see EDs conflate the two a LOT to justify the claim that Eren is a pyscho.
Also, like I said, the video also used previous scenes from the narrative to show the backstory, context, character development to explain why the ending (or just the Rumbling arc as a whole) just destroys what the story has already set up, or just backtracks or retcons them.
So like I said, so what if its stuff from the wiki?.As long as its relevant to his points, and how it shows that the ending just ruins lots of things prior in the story, that thats alright. And I say, its pretty relevant, and makes sense. You can disagree, and thats alright too. I wont hate you for it. Just simply stating what is in the story.
I really wish action writers/artist would stop trying to put romance in their stories because they legit don't know how to write them.
Mikasa's love was obsession. Eren showed absolutely no feelings to her. They were raised as brother and sister and never discussed anything more than that when they became older. But somehow in the end they were in love.
Everyone talks about what a cool character Mikasa is but she's not even a character. This isn't just a writing problem this is a whole AoT problem. We know nothing about her other than she loves Eren. She had no thoughts or opinions of her own unless Eren has stated them. This would be really cool to explore and give her more character and have her break free of this but no it's treated so normal. She's one of the worst written female characters I've ever seen which baffles me because AoT is full of well written women. I guess when you're in a romance with the main character you just get no effort put in to yourself, you just have to be pretty.
Exactly, you said it yourself. Realistically, it's logical to think that when a dude saves your life by risking his own after both of your parents are murdered and you're left traumatized, not sure how to respond to such immense grief cuz you're a kid, of course you become super obsessed with the dude. It's more realistic, that you develop feelings for him and fall in love after you start to get to know him. That's literally what happened for Mikasa. Trust me, I've seen people do many illogical things in love despite the fact that they are ready to die for that person, the character writing of Mikasa is amazing. Mikasa wasn't a mentally healthy kid when she fell in love.
@@Papaty25 Mikasa didn't gradually fall in love with Eren. She even denied the person he had become. There was always a static attachment, an obsession to someone that ignores you. This design choice made her one of the worst characters in AOT in terms of line quality and made her look like a mentally weak character. Everyone in the AOT universe has some kind of trauma that shapes their decisions and persona but it doesn't limit their vocabulary to only one word.
@@bblunder what? Mikasa lacks depth? Bro, you need to watch AOT again. Her character is *a traumatised girl who is super obsessed with a guy cuz everyone she ever knew is dead and how she gets through life and hardships without Eren at her side. When all she wants is to protect Eren * . Though Isayama fucked the story in the end resulting in many character inconsistencies and plotholes.
@@bblunder Mikasa doesn't know anything about anyone or the world. Eren is the guy she spent most of her childhood with. How do you expect her to be a politician? Lmao
@@Papaty25She's not a real person. Isayama could have written her differently and made her a politician
Jesus, Annie, just… wtf was going on there? We literally had that moment of Gabi being forgiven by Sasha’s family, realizing Gabi was a victim of the war, and yet Kaya tried to STAB her! She did not forgive Gabi right then and there, there was a very real human reaction there!
But Annie? Not even a “reason you suck” speech, no hostility, not even telling her and her father to go to hell, who does she think she is? No Levi threatening “When this is over, we’ve got a score to settle,” no karma in Annie’s father dying (seriously, would anyone be sad if she didn't reunite with him? Was anyone rooting for that outcome, even her fans, she gets to see her abuser?), nothing. It wasn’t even “they have a bigger enemy to fight, they can’t afford conflict,” or “they all realize they did horrible things so they are equally bad (which they are not, Paradis was never spinning people like yo-yo’s),” it was just deliberately avoiding it all together. The story was hoping we forgot or hadn’t rewatched the Female Titan arc.
Armin obliterating an entire port and killing thousands of people, civilians included, is a lot worse than her spinning one soldier like a yo-yo and killing the others that let's not forget, were attacking her too.
@@dextoppable By the moment they realized how powerful Female Titan is, they were running for their lives. There was no need to go after them and kill them, not to mention her sadistic, brutal way of killing everyone, her reaction after she got caught in Stohess.
Armin killing people at port is different score to settle. Imagine if Armin killed Reiner's mother, Falco, Annie's father, Piecks family. Do you think they would just sit down and forgive? It's not about nameless random people with no connection to cast, it's about Levi's squad, maybe even his pupil or beloved.
@@dextoppableStill those Marleyans never dared to take revenge against him, when he is saying that he and others lost their Titan abilities.
Aot Main theme is how you should always love your abusers :
Annie with her Dad
Ymir with king Fritz
Mikasa with Eren
Historia with the bully farmer who threw stones at her
@@aegontargaryen4801 Isayamas NTR in nutshell
what a way to end a good series. After the ending i have 0 desire to re-watch it cus of its damage
Literally this. I cannot even listen to the amazing soundtrack because it reminds me of this shit
Yeah man it literally recontextualizes EVERYTHING post timeskip
Just rewatch up until the ocean scene. Forget Season 4 exists. Season 4 damaged the series. Or don't bother watching for the writing
@@300XeonThe soundtrack besides voice acting and animation is literally the only good thing about the soundtrack. Forget about the writing. The writing went crap after Season 3.
@harry3461 Season 4 literally has bad writing, it's not just the ending.
"For Eren, rather than a lover, Mikasa's presence is more like a mother to him. The love towards a mother is considered valuable [precious], however at the same time, there are annoying parts as well [laugh]," Isayama said only to Retcon it in the last episode 😂
I wanted to include this and other comments made by Isayama in interviews but he always contradicts himself lol
@Spryzen139 bro your video is so well made its crazy. I wanted to watch your other videos but..... then I noticed this is your only video.
It's rather insane to have THIS much quality in your first video. You've got tons of potential.
Great work honestly❤
Err... no because what proves this?
@@sabsain2399 -🤓
@@mr.hehehe6324 🤡
This video is everythin that I feel about the last arc of the series. Such a huge fumble for such an otherwise beautifully written story. Idk how ending defenders can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that sum people have issues with the ending. It was always going to upset someone but it’s crazy how they make their own head cannons and run with it & if we don’t agree then we “didn’t understand the story”. We’re upset because we loved and understood the story, the same story isayama seemed to have forgotten most of in the end. I can’t make any headcannons to save the story for me and this ending will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I invested my childhood, 10 years of my life. I worshipped this series and the ending just gave me a bad psychedelic trip. I'm depressed and AoT's extremely bad ending made me feel another emotion for the first time in years
@@lasgio_ I hear u bro. I’ve been following it since I was 13 in 2013. Just sucks when something u loved so much and had such high hopes for let’s u down. I know it shouldn’t be that serious but it just sucks to think about what coulda been instead of what we got. Even the anime I was excited for a bit but then eren said the whole “it cuz I’m an idiot” thing and i thought “yo isayama hates us”
i guess why do u wanted to see on the end@@youngjiggymf1704
Working passionately on something gets harder as more time passes by, I feel like 10 years will change how isayama felt about attack on titan, in the end he lost the feeling that aot originally gave and ended up making a half asses ending, personally I liked the ending because I was still able to drive meaning from it, I have my critics but it's a better story than having everyone die in the end or having a happy fantasy where everyone's problems are solved. It's grounded in reality in the sense that tragedy is inevitable and we must cherish eachother and fight for a better world. Aot ending doesn't give me satisfaction, it allows me to look back on our journey and appreciate life.
@@mystery785 I’m not mad at this take. I can see how people would be able to have a take away from this ending. I think isayama kept building the story organically to the point where it didn’t match his original ending but he still tried to use it anyway. Idk sum of the retcons make me think that’s the case but its just too much shit for me to look past. I respect ur take on it tho
Commenting twice because this deserves more views. YES ABOUT ARMIN. He's so unbelievably disappointing in s4. Everyone celebrates him becoming the Commander when essentially Levi takes over.
Not only that but he only becomes the Commander for the final fight and his dumbass plan was just to zerg rush Eren, so much for the bright Tactician, even Levi cane up with a better plan.
Levi carried the scouts so hard it's insane.
Armin didn’t know how to stop founding Titan Eren and Ymir with infinite titans and powers within minutes therefore he’s not qualified to be commander or a brilliant tactician.
That’s what you guys just said.
LoL commande of what?? A commander of traitors and enemies? The Yeagerists were always the real successors of the Survey Corps and the only reason Levi, the man who saw all his comrades die in order to free the people of the island, didn;t join the Yeagerists, was because the show had a leftist agenda of promoting nationalism as evil. It was in every way against Levi's Character to do anything other than joining the Yeagerists. He didn't even need to be against them to kill Zeke. He could have done it after Eren got his way with him. Also, Levi not killing Annie is the most illogical and unrealistic thing i've seen in my life.
@@Musipict Levi, who fights for what’s right the entire story would then fight to destroy all of humanity, doing exactly what was done to them to the outside world, the vast majority of which being completely innocent in regards to this conflict to the point where they wouldn’t even know why they’re being killed?
No. Him doing that is what would be a complete 180 of his character.
You weirdos that wanted our main characters to all become false pride having nationalists are something else. Thank goodness the author isn’t as brainwashed as you are.
he's so useless in s4 despite having titan powers 😂
If anime had its Game of Thrones season 8 moment, it would be the Attack on Titan finale.
Don't be shy keep crying
@@avid4288 I stand by what I said. The AoT finale is a master class in bad story telling. Don't be shy, keep huffing that copium.
@@adamestrada7610 The AOT finale is masterclass in good storytelling your denial doesn't change that
@@avid4288 Yup, just keep huffing that copium.
@@adamestrada7610 Ironic since you're the huffing the copium
Thought I was the only one to find this entire arc problematic. People are like, the last 20 minutes ruined everything and others are praising it for a masterpiece. Rarely do people consider the whole and how not only the ending but the whole arc leading upto it was a massive misfire. All I wanted was a story that made sense, that was narratively consistent, and we get this incoherent, messy, plothole filled shit.
Fair point. Now, please go ahead and write your own story and make sure it is a masterpiece from beginning to end. It is so easy to judge and critique as a consumer. We can keep assuming things, and we can keep complaining all day. At the end of it all, that is all we will get out of it. Shingeki no kyojin still remains a generational anime no matter what you, I, or any other person will say. To me and many others, it was an ending that delivered the message Isayama had to convey. Humanity sucks and we keep repeating our mistakes, inevitably heading to our doom.
Edit: Not meant to instigate anything. It's just an opinion, just like yours.
@@alexanderthegreat235 the point that humanity sucks, violence is inevitable, the world is a cruel and beautiful place has always been the case with this show, that much has already been hammered in our heads from the very 1st episode. It's not the message it's the execution that's repetitive and dull. If every consumer had to create a masterpiece in order to attain the rights to criticise one (that other people claim to be), then how do you think that's gonna work? People who loved it gets to rest and ones who didn't have to start working on creating one?? Yes it's easy to judge, and it ought to be judged, if something is mindlessly appreciated or hated then what justice are we doing to the work of the creator.
@nicasioz189 It is fine to judge it if it gives you peace of mind. All I was trying to say is that it will not change anything. It has ended, and that was it. I personally felt content with the ending because the conflicts/plot lines that I wanted to see all the way through the end were resolved. I never said it was perfect, I was just saying it feels pointless to spread hate online about something that is a done deal. It's fine if you dislike or even hate it. Just don't push that onto others. I had to dodge social media for several weeks due to people who wanted to spoil it to us, anime onlies, because they were displeased with the ending. You can share your opinion just like I'm sharing mine here, but no one has to be radical in doing so. Just like you don't have to change your mind whilst reading this, I shouldn't have to be forced to change my mind about something just because some Joe on the internet wants me to hate something they did (not referring to this video in particular. It was a well put - personal - opinion)
@@alexanderthegreat235 dude I don't want you to change your opinion. I too didn't read the manga, heard about the hatred manga readers had with ending, and I too spent days away from social media to keep my perception of this show objective. And I specifically commented on this video because I did want to express myself with the people who shared my opinion, it's difficult being on the minority. It's not about spreading hate in my case atleast, it's coping with the hurt and disappointment with something that used to be so precious. Im actually glad people could enjoy and be content with it because I couldn't. I just could not be indifferent to it. I expected so much more, the world building, intricate details into how the Titan powers worked, great characters like Erwin and Kenny, beautifully crafted set pieces, truly deep yet logical, specific yet abstract... These are the qualities that made me love this show.. I mean this one of a kind show was the introduction to the world of anime.. this show receives so much of hate because people feel betrayed. But you cannot just let it go because its over, past lives in us, it's not something you can easily discard. Love or hate it, it stays with you.
@@nicasioz189it takes time to digest and understand the ending... I read the manga and i wasn't that happy nor sad.. But then after some time passed by I kinda understood eren again overall and actually the ending kinda made sense in a way... Their execution could have been better... For that i give them 7/10.. Could have done it way better than this
Let's just conclude that Isayama is terrible at romance :/
The story of aot should have never been about romance anyway idk why did Isayama shove that in the last chapters and yeah he's shit at it as well.
In the final chapters I agree, but what makes it so frustrating is that he's shown previously that he isn't. Historia and Ymir to me have one of the most beautifully written connections in anime, absolutely implied at points to be romantic. And it isn't forced in, or cringe, or overshadowing the main story but actually easily coincides and narratively displays many core themes. You could even argue this to a lesser, more fanon extent with Levi and Erwin. Gabi and Falco weren't badly done either, at least it had some build up and was pretty lowkey. It just furthers my confusion (and pain) at the absolute fumble that is the rumbling arc, and how all of a sudden these terrible romance plots are shoehorned in for no reason. Like, did he accidentally make Ymir and Historia such a heartrending romance? How was he so good at writing subtle romance plots before just to be completely disastrous at it towards the end? It was like reading bad fanfiction. Actual pain. I used to love aot
@@megan3256 Oh right… damn I actually forgot. Eren wrapping around scarf for Mikasa was also sweet
@@megan3256 I believe the implied romanticism between Ymir & Historia you are describing was accidental, unfortunately. The only well done relationships depicted in the story were those of strong resolve between close friends, so much so that it tinged on romance; however, all of the relationships that were obviously intended to be romantic were depicted as toxic, abusive, one-way dynamics, to the point it makes it painfully obvious Isayama does not understand how to write compelling romance between characters.
@@YuruYuriYurubecause mikasa fans abducted him and forced him to write their romance wet dream while holding him at gun point
You absolutely nailed these criticisms. I'm glad I have a well written criticism to refer back to now
A few well written critiques I've seen are "AoT: The Obvious Reason Why The Ending Failed", "Extensive breakdown of the ending: Too many narrative flaws to be unintentional" (but does have some emotional influence to the writing), "When someone asks what was wrong with the ending:", and a few more I don't have on me rn. These are great because in a debate it's a lot easier to reference a written critique rather than a video. I also encourage you to check out Isayama's interviews, especially the ones about Eren and Mikasa's dynamic; forcing an Ending Defender to either admit Eren loving Mikasa was a retcon or call Isayama a liar is always pretty funny.
The real problem is that alot of ending defender acting like they have to follow the "message" or something just because it was told by a guy - which is Yams.
They don't even have their's own vision of things, but blindly follow others just because they were told.
The reason why some people think that aot had a good ending was because they couldn’t comprehend it.
Ironic. Very ironic.
@@gazelle_diamond9768 I don’t get it
@@Ksmsusneusmeusjs That would make sense.
@@gazelle_diamond9768 explain
@@Ksmsusneusmeusjs You saying that people who thought the ending was good, only thought so because they couldn't comprehend it, is a statement I would consider quite ironic, as it is actually the other way around.
Those who hate the ending are the ones who aren't able to understand it and its message.
This is one of the best anime ending analyses I've seen. Thanks.
If you paid attention, it’s more about the series as a whole than the ending. Because majority of the flaws he’s pointing to happened since the beginning. Basically, Attack on Titan is a badly written series
@@CaptainChurrr nah. its bad retroactively. ending makes prior scenes redundant. s1-3 were still perfect. s4 comes with flawed worldbuilding.
@@pyrite2060Nah, season 1- 3 had a lot of issues, plot armour, plot contrivances and stupid character decisions. However, it's not as bad season 4.
@@shivill2236 ill agree. just for me it was that much better than s4.
@@pyrite2060 Fair enough, I'd definitely say I enjoyed season 1-3 more than season 4.
AOT ending is one of those endings that leaves u feeling confused because you're unsure how to feel. But the more you think about it, the worse it gets.
the only thing that get better is the meme that came out of it.
Lmao this is so true. For the most part I was satisfied after watching the ending, but I had written a lot of notes about plot points that didn't make sense or were not explained.
The more I googled, the more I found that there was no explanation, and there were other things that weren't explained or didn't make sense.
@@Xtremedave2 I am still baffled that hundreds of nine special titans couldn't even kill a person on the alliance.
@@habibpinesMy head canon for that is "Ymir and Eren controlled them so they wouldn't kill them but would only come close".
Or just simply, "Ymir".
Better than no explanation, I guess.
The ending keeps growing like cancer
I actually thought Ymir was gonna be reborn as Historia's Reincarnated baby
And that Eren would be the father, which would've made him the official new King of Paradis!
Weak farmer genes didnt let it
@PedroLucas-mg5je a much better ending
Thank you for making a comprehensive List of all the critiques I was too lazy to articulate.
I appreciate all the effort that went into making this. I had forgotten so much of the story and characters over the years. How you even managed to gather all this info is baffling to me. While I have to agree with most of your points, it really hurts to admit just how badly this series ended.
I genuinely wasn’t sure how to feel about the end. In fact I wasn’t sure how to feel about so much of the series because it jumps all over the place. Keeping up with a myriad of different arcs and plot lines and characters is daunting, which makes your work here all the more impressive.
Thank you for making this video and shining a light on the series and its inconsistencies. I hate to admit it, but, you’re right.
Exactly the way this last “season” was shown to the audience is outrageous. Makes people forget very important plot points and things we were shown.
Bro he omits information to make half his points. You’re a prime example of how people like him can get you to believe his dumbass.
Ending haters forgot/didn’t understand the story, like holy shit.
@@brycepatterson8919 exactly, then they have the nerve to say we don’t understand the story or that we need everything spoon fed to us.
I appreciate the themetic elements the author was trying to dictate from a philosophical perspective but that perspective ultimately tarnished the story. I’ll give an example, Isayama wanted to themetically highlight the cycle of war and how it often repeats but in order to do so he’d have to contradict his story(which he did). I feel Isayama cared more about the message behind the story than the story itself.
If you "had forgotten" then go read it yourself, dont let a clown tell you about it
What’s really frustrating me is all the people essentially pretending all these other problems don’t exist because the anime had some marginal “improvements” to the final chapters
seriously
There no real improvements. Everything said in video about Armin-Eren conversation still applies.
Well making Armin react to 80% was an improvement, not gonna lie. Also whole conversation about this topic except Eren's reply "Because I am stupid, garden variety tool idiot who got a hold on too much power". OH YEAH, THAT MAKES SENSE, HE WAS JUST A BAKA.
@lox000zavr The action was badass but yeah in terms of plot I agree. Eren saying "I'm an idiot" made me pull my hair out
There were no 'improvements'. They removed the part where armin thanks eren for destroying 80% but add a line where eren says he did this because he was just a baka. They added more years to the destruction of paradis(seems like cyberpunk era) than in the manga, but that removes the realism part of the ending. How did paradis manage to stay for so many years in peace when they mentioned that conflict between the two has only been inflamed by eren's actions?
I think Isayama wanted to make Historia and Eren canon and be their kid, but probably because many fans are obsessed with Mikasa he change it and dropped that plot line.
I think mangaka should be confident to write a story that goes against Fandom wishes, like write not the story we want, write the story we deserve.
But many want to play safe and so betray their own work with that
It’s literally been confirmed that Isayama lurked on fan forums, etc… and took that into account when coming up with the ending, which is so stupid
@@justadummy8076 I have heard that comment a lot, but I forgot where did it come from. Do you remember? It helps to disprove ED's claims that Isayama actually planned this from the start
true that scence with armin fell so forced and cringe for me
You know. Everytime I see some new takes or developments within the AoT fanbase or recent anime for example, I always come to change my stance on the ending thinking that maybe I’d be able to appreciate it more. Then I come back to these critiques and realize that no, the ending is still as incredible flawed and poorly executed as it was when it was originally written and released. Nothings changed much at all
This is a good way of thinking, seeing what both sides of the coin have to say about the ending and analyzing if they are right or wrong.
I have been a "hater" of the ending since the manga ed and even myself I was impressed on the OST and amazing animation MAPPA bring to end the series, they made an incredible work for sure!!
But the conveniences and plot holes are still there, they tried to change a little bit the convo with Eren and Armin, but it's too late to save his character.
I like it a lot and it's sad to see Mikasa crying in the end, but I can not accept the bullshit that is the writting not only in the final chapters, I will say in the final arc since the rumbling started.
You could just try to enjoy it despite its flaws, not everything is perfect and it was serviceable imo
@@greenpig1175aot used to be as close to perfection as shonen can get, its only natural to hold the ending to the same standard. Besides, the ending isnt really enjoyable anyway, its corny and childish.
@@Shinnginit isn't shonen
@@WIsForWeaboo yes it is, its even released in a shonen magazine, it may have some adult themes but after how they were handled its clear what the demographic is.
This is genuinely the best video on this app. Thank you for explaining everything perfectly and also acknowledging the arguments for the ending being good and debunking them or just explaining why it’s either not well written or just makes no sense.
I thought I was the only he realize the Ackerman retcon😭😭
Thank you. I’m genuinely disheartened that people watched this and didn’t see anything wrong with it. Makes me feel like they saw this show as just any regular anime and didn’t critically think about any of it.
Clearly you overthought and your wrong
@@arminkir9389 I’m not listening to someone with no grammatical or critical thinking skills, sorry.
@@friedhotwings says the person who can’t realize an ending where the entire point of the story is executed perfectly is quote on quote bad
@@arminkir9389 No, says the person who is able to critically analyze and use proper grammar. Do not respond back to me. I won’t be reading or replying. I don’t have time for ignorance or childish arguments. Also the phrase is quote unquote and is not necessary in text form.
The scale AOT grew on was way over these people's heads, you really have to go deep to understand how the ending is bad, that tells us that most of the people don't care about how peak this fiction could've been, but it all went to waste
Incredibly made video and the best one I've seen on the series' ending. The video's structure as well as the arguments and conciseness of the points made within were beautiful. There were a lot of things I didn't know of, like Eren's wording differing with Historia and Mikasa. It actually gave me more of an appreciation for set up and elements of the story prior to the ending., which makes it all the sadder to me it ended up the way it did. Subscribed! If you decide to make any future content I will definitely tune in.
You literally said every issue and in a good and digestible format. Its so insane seeing Anime Onlys call this ending a "masterpiece". Feels like they living in a different reality
Flashy colors ohh masterpiece
-Covid anime watchers
They dont care about story telling anymore. But refusing to hear a criticism? Oh no! What a hater you are 😠
@@mooncrow2447 which ironically you guys have been doing since the start
The ending was brilliant. It was a bit convoluted at times with all the time jumps, but overall it stuck the landing beautifully.
Because they only watched the anime, and the anime was a masterpiece. A lot of this guy's criticisms are from the manga which the anime fixes.
I hate how some people are defending this half-ass of an ending. Even calling it perfect or saying it couldn't be better. It hurts me to see the anime that I loved for years fall apart.
And their most common defense? "You didn't understand the story!"
I'm an AO, and even I understood the story better then those weirdos.
@@roukerasati9611 These dumb ED really pissing me off
Same bro
Mfs when they hear someone has a different opinion than them:
@@theretroshogun2961 Yeah, well, people can also express that the ending is shit and don't understand why others praise it. "It's just a different opinion". Yeah, well, the opinion is "It was perfect and you don't get it!" Great argument.
This is probably the best analysis I've seen on Attack on Titan's ending. Unlike other evaluations I've seen that come up with really weird reasonings to justify issues or just straight up overlook them; you perfectly explained every issue I found with Attack on Titan's final arc and even brought my attention to some new ones (that contradiction in Keith's character completely flew over my head). And most importantly you back all of this up with evidence directly from the story, something that I barely see when it comes to defending the ending. I'm really impressed that this is your only video currently when it's this well written. Fantastic work, I'd love to see you do more analysis like this in the future.
Aint no way you say people barely provide evidence when defending the ending LMFAOOO what the hell are you watching
@@draglonconx7771 omg if they don't like the ending then they dont like the ending. why do you care 😭
@@chururira6510 i hate media illiterate monkeys who are likely 15 year olds who've never touched a literary analysis in their lide
@@chururira6510 i hate dumb people
@@draglonconx7771blud keep coping ending defenders dont even have one consistent interpretation its that bad
Brandon Sanderson makes great points in his writing lectures that can be used to analyze why Attack on Titan's ending is not good and unsatisfying.
During the progress of a story, the readers want a "map": they want to know the direction they are going and the progress they are making through the story. They want to FEEL the progress. They want to see the story building toward something, and they want to find out what that "something" is. Let the reader know that a steady progress toward an inevitable and exciting goal is happening in the story. The writer do this by identifying what questions the reader wants answered and that will be the reason they are turning the page. (Isayama never answered the readers wants answered.)
If you make a "promise" in the book, but start taking the story in another direction, then readers get bored because they feel like they are on a "diversion" from the actual plot. That's why the progress needs to be cohesive with the promises you make as a writer. If you are writing a romance, you need to indicate progress is happening, so plot out little points to indicate that is blooming. (Isayama did not plot out little points to indicate Eren's romantic feelings to Mikasa, thus it did not feel romantic, even to me as a shoujo loving, romance films and bridgerton enthusiast)
Brandon Sanderson also mentioned payoff. It's the feeling you leave the reader with when they finish your book. You make good on all your promises. Sometimes the final sequences/plot isn't the original promise. It can be the character growing, plot expands, etc. A lot of readers will have problems with a substitute a lot of times. If you promise them a "toy car" and give them a "toy plane" they won't like that unless you REALLY convince them that what they really want is the substitute, even though they THOUGHT they wanted the original. Payoff should flow naturally with the progress. It should give them everything they were promised at the beginning PLUS something else and new. Give them a toy car AND a plane.
Isayama did not make good on his promises, and did not really convince some readers enough that they wanted the "toy plane" or the substitute. Instead, we were told that this toy plane was what he promised all along, when in the "map" there was a toy car and the promise of more. That's why AOT's ending is unsatisfying.
I think also a big problem with the romance part in general with mangas is, that authors have since the start set in stone who is going to be the love interest but don't develop it at all and when another character comes and they got better romance between the main character than their original pick, most authors don't want to take the step and chang it to them and instead insist the original love interest, who never got any chance for any development, is the best pick, which most of the time just isn't
Bro, I watched dozens of videos with finale being debunked, but yours is just next level. Those parallels between Ymir & Historia you found gave me goosebumps. Also, the idea you suggested of making the AoT a story about diplomacy failures and upper class interests leading to world-level tragedies seems really promising. It could even be the ultimate recursion to post-apocalyptic world we had been introduced to in the beginning of the manga -- I mean the one with no life outside Paradis. Anyways, brilliant work; like, subscribe, money transfer :)
I would like to see an ending defender try to dismantle all the arguments in the video. I think that's a pipe dream.
There is even a better video about those parallels. It's called Eren Yeager freed the founder Ymir by Serenity. Give it a try is a masterpiece.
The Dina twist makes me think that all abnormal titans were only abnormal because someone was manipulating them from the Paths for some reason.
This is a theory I've heard before as well! Then again look at all of those goofy things. Ymir just be throwing sh*t together and mouthing "Here ya go!" Abnormals could just be a random occurrence because it all looks so haphazard. Her play-doh skills are lacking
Was that not always the case? I saw Ymir in the paths creating the Titans(pure or not) with the “sand” that was shown. I interpreted that as she was literally bestowing the power to each individual titan, even allowing them to move. The only way Zeke could control titans is because Ymir saw him as an authority figure commanding her. Even if he didn’t know she existed.
Totally agree. To me, the biggest red flag that the story was irredeemably doomed was Falco transforming himself in a literal Falcon Titan. And the excuse is that "he was seeing birds at that battlefield where he almost died" lmao.
Had Annie not decided to stay at the ship everyone would have died then and there. But it would have not made any difference anyways.
Lmao for real. Just because it was foreshadowed doesnt mean it wasnt an ass-pull. Yeah it may not have come out of nowhere. But there is still no logical or sensible reason why
He turned into a falcon Titan, because he turned into a dumb Titan by Zeke's beast Titan spinal fluid 💀
@@300thNPCHe turned into a falcon Titan, because he turned into a dumb Titan by Zeke's beast Titan spinal fluid 💀
@@thepinguguy9888but he didn't turn into that the first time he transformed, wtf
@@randomusername3873because the "beast" traits come out just when you become one of the 9 shifters. There is no pure titan from Zeke's spinal fluid that has any "beast" traits. I think that makes sense. I don't see any inconsistency or problem here with this part of the story. And it's not just a random thing, we can see shifters gaining traits or characteristics from other shifters, and we have two clear examples other than Falco. The first one is Eren that gains the armor trait from presumably Reiner's or previous armored users spinal fluid, and the second one is Annie, which is literally the fucking mimic titan
"How poorly it's executed" is something a lot of people don't understand. Almost all defenses to bad writing is that "it's realistic or could make sense". That doesn't equate to good writing, good characterization, or a good ending. Writing requires more than that. The whole point of themes, and character arcs, and plot points is that you're promising your viewers the story will deliver something along these lines. In a mystery story, there will be lots of questions. In an action story, there will be a lot of fighting. In a sport story, there will be sports. In AoT, there was foreshadowing, themes of war, fragility of life, oppression, racism, but the story chooses to end without answering many questions, giving us more questions, and the answer to it all was romance. What if Mikasa hadn't been the one to kill Eren? Would Ymir not stop then? This isn't even addressing the weird actions of certain characters. This is solely just looking at what happened to the writing.
Payoff is important! If it's not relevant to the story, don't present it and especially don't continually present it as if it's something worth considering.
I agree and disagree at the same time. There are stories that trick into delivering one thing but give another, and it still works out. I'd agree that realism doesn't always mean good writing, but i feel most people understand why realism in storytelling is duch a prevalent thing. I dont mean world wise, but rather characters and dialogue. Honesty, the only big thing i would change is Eren winning in the end, but have Pardis still destroy themselves. It would actually make Eren's actions worth it from a reader experience, but reinforce the themes that Eren's actions were in vain. The route of Genocide doesnt solve anything, and that would've put a neat bow into everything.
Bro commenting about writing when he hasn’t written anything as famous as aot. My guy, it basically took his entire life to write this series and yet people want to criticize story holes (if there are any) and contradiction when that’s not the point of the story. It’s actually sad that people like this video and this comment decide to turn to hatred for a show with or without imperfections. Did you enjoy the series? Did it impact you? If not, then why did you even bother finishing the series?
@@mr.atomictitan9938Dude, people don't praise effort, people praise results and if the results didn't deliver it needs to be criticized so the creator makes better next time. Do I acknowledge his effort? Of course. Am I satisfied with the results? Of course not, because everything he was building up could been amazing, but it ended up being dissapointed. What you're asking is just to consume and shut up, well I'm sorry things don't work that way when it comes to storytelling or anything in general because if it was that way then a lot of things wouldn't be the way they are if it wasn't for those observations.
@@rodrigoa.oviedogarcia8139 everyone is quite entitled to their observations and opinions but those don’t necessarily mean they are the correct or right way. I absolutely respect constructive criticism when it merits progress not boasting about a show you dislike. Sure you are disappointed but could that matter less? If you make a claim back it up and if you cannot consider each case (in the case of AOT we have a finite amount of cases to consider) carefully then all your doing is proving people who are blind to reason that your a hateful or ignorant person. This video has essentially made sparse cases and incomplete thoughts. Therefore, how can I listen to a person that cannot even complete a sentence. I love the show but even I have questions about how some parts make sense, but this rarely bothers me because those are usually insignificant to the point of the story in general.
@@mr.atomictitan9938 So at the let's stop questioning things and enjoy the ride? Yeah sure, that sounds logical.
This video restored my faith in humanity a bit. Nobody in their right mind should be calling this ending “good” much less a “masterpiece” 🤦🏾♂️
Thats Not how opinions work
@@indedgames4359 Cry for me.
You got to have a certain problem if peoples opinions make you that mad
@@warpitexis2341 yeah I’m not gonna be told 1+1=4, if your a mindless npc thats okay. You sound super smart ngl, have a good life 😂
@@GalaxyShogun whatever makes you happy lol
Finally a video that acknowledges that the entire rumbling arc ruined AoT and not just chapter 139. Even a lot of ending haters fail to acknowledge this.
I think the problems started appearing by the time Eren spoke in the table with Armin and Mikasa, that conversation seemed to be hinding something at first but in reality was that stupid.
139 was the point of no return. It could have been saved before then imo.
@@mistake1197I remember waiting for 139 just hoping everything ties together
i suppose i did to i kinda didnt like season 4 as a whole
but personally if you would mind replying t my message i feel like the alliance ruined everything
Its feels like after the time skip isayama forgot how to write his own story anymore
It wasn't even after the time skip, everything after the time skip is still really good, it's only after Eren frees Ymir (The Rumbling Arc) that Isayama systematically dismantles every plot thread he was building up.
@@akaneki7234 he cooked for a decade then when it was ready he tripped over and got all the sauce on the floor just like that chili scene from the office
Fellow ending hater. Here's your crown king 👑
Crown of thorns
@@Sigma_Looksmaxxer yeah that's for anyone that actually likes this garbage ending
@@daizenmarcurio an ending doesn't need to be wholesome or a tragedy but a logical conclusion to all the events that happened in the story. A few more things could be improved but it was a still an average "OK" ending in my opinion. People who say that Eren's effort went to waste, it's in humanity's very nature to have conflict. Without conflict we can't have any progress. History will always repeat itself some point in time.
They tryna guilt tripping us for this shit man fr
@@Sigma_Looksmaxxer nuh uh
I just finished the anime yesterday, and was left so disappointed and confused..
I voiced my frustration and sadness on my private facebook, and my cousins gf wrote a long comment about why she really disagreed with me. Which is fair. But then when I asked about all the plot holes, listing almost every one you pointed out here - silence. Then I told her that I was shocked to find the fanbase so split, basically being in one of two camps; either you praised the ending like a god sent, or you absolutely hated it and thought it was garbage.
I don't hate the ending, but I don't like it either. I'm just left so confused.. like, did the ending defenders get something I didn't? Some of my favorite animes have been stories like Re:Zero and the Monogatari series, it's not like I can't follow a complicated plot. Why did so many cry watching the ending, while I just sat there, baffled sometimes even laughing in disbelief at the ridiculousness of the characters?
Just like everyone else, I waited 10 years for a conclusion. I absolutely LOVED the first 3 seasons. Despite not loving the fact that humanity being on the brink of extinction wasn't the case, and titans being humans all along. I was still hooked and wanted to see it to an end. And now I'm just left with this empty feeling of confusion and disappointment.. I almost feel like it's the ending of GoT all over again. Am I in the wrong for feeling that way?
Me too, at least that was what I felt 2 years ago, but the more I find the answers the more holes I find, the more clear I hated the way it end.
I just want to know what exactly made you feel this way?? What really disappointed u??
You are absolutely right when you feel this way. I believe that most people who loved the ending were simply casual anime viewers or took one of those (debunked in the video) theories as the truth.
Do damn true. S3 had me still hooked but since s4 came it went down the rails. BIG TIME!!! For me ,AOT ends when they go sea the ocean. Period! The show could have ended there and I'd be more happy than ever. I so badly wish I never saw s4 and the rest of that garbage or even knew it existed
I was on the fence about the ending but you bring up some very good points. Its a shame because it seems there were seeds of a better ending hidden in the ending we got.
Notice how the anime only ppl call this a masterpiece yet can’t site a single good narratively good reason why it is good
Other than “determinism”
It rounds out everyone's character arcs well, it presents a good conclusion to the conflict and is overall a satisfying ending. What else do you want?!
@@gazelle_diamond9768The Rumbling is stopped by a Deus Ex Machina. Zeke's character ends with him being convinced by a single memory that his entire ideology is wrong. The series was revealed to be a result of a Bootstrap paradox and this isn't even mentioning the extreme plot armour that some of these characters have.
@@shivill2236Wrong. Incorrect. Irrelevant because of the way the timeline in the world of AoT works. As for plot armor, I'd argue the series uses the opposite, where a ton of characters die just for the sake of the plot without any logic about it.
@@gazelle_diamond9768
1. Alright, at what point was it established that the former titan users could regain consciousness?
2. Aot has a lot of Plot Armour, this ending is no different, the cast were saved by a Deus Ex Machina in the form of the past titan users regaining their consciousness.
@@shivill2236 1. Established? At the moment it happened. The same way that Eren turning into a 600 m tall and 1 km long hallucigenia titan was established the moment it happened. The same way that Eren being a fucking titan shifter was established the moment you saw him crawl out of the titan's back.
Does it check out with the way the magic system worked so far? Yeah, kinda. Titan shifters had always been able to glimpse into their past users' memories, meaning those had to still exist somewhere. That "somewhere" being the paths, the place all Eldian life, both past, present and future, intersects. The exact limits of the magic in AoT is never really explained, because it is supposed to be a big mystery, but considering we already have a connection to the past via the inheritance of memories, the dead titan shifters existing in the place that doesn't _have_ death or time... is as reasonable as anything else in the series.
2. Hold on... this is literally just your first point. And it doesn't even make any sense. If this is what you consider "plot armor", then I dare you to name any piece of media with main characters that DON'T have plot armor.
You're right and I hate that you're right. I got into AOT right before the 2nd to last part came out and caught up with 2 months to spare until the ending for the anime and wish I didn't. I wish I ignored all my friends telling me it's good, the worst part is they were all manga readers saying "Oh you'll like the ending!! Ignore them!! They don't get it!" just to learn they're wrong and the ending sucks dick
Great video btw :) besides how I had to turn my speakers up to 500% to hear you. You summed up basically how I felt about the ending besides how you missed the part where Mikasa was just Eren's pitbull.
Should have learned from Eren to not trust your friends lmaoooo
After they told me to read Blue Lock (120 chapters in btw) I will not be trusting them any longer
@@floatingfuwanteis it good?
@@floatingfuwante blue lock is a W anime/manga bro, way better than aot, u prob just don't like football thats why
He's not right.
this is the most well organized, creitical and respectful delievery of ending hate essay i have seen within the last 2+ years of aot ending rampage. Thank you for being the video i will point people too for now on, when they ask, "why do you hate it so much"
too bad he got all of it wrong
@@EnderBroadcastplease elaborate
@@EnderBroadcast- no he didn’t he literally pointed almost every single retcon and inconsistency im dying to know how you’ll refute any of those points😂😂😂
@@beerussama8128 Well it's very simple. I read with my eyes open. That's how you refute the bullshit he said.
@@EnderBroadcast- bruh🤦🏽♂️😂
Hands down this was the best video that explained why the ending of AoT was terrible. For sure deserves way more views, great video!
Is this really the best one? Cause then I can safely say that the people who hate the ending are just being idiots.
@@racool911 said the idiot
@@racool911 Lmao, so true
@@racool911nah, y’all just can’t read.
@@racool911 I’m convinced that if you like the ending your illiterate, and need everything spoon fed to you.
You literally addressed almost every single issue I had with the final arc, to a T! Never ever before Ive seen it all summarised so good like that! Thank you so much! You rly saved me the work of doing a giant post.
im gonna keep rewatching this video until my rage subsides! for 10 years at least!
Get a freaking life dude.
I honestly stay away from people who would call this ending a masterpiece.
How can some people be so stupid and blind?
The animation bro. That's what they care about
@raidenstark4964 tbh, the animation, voice acting and music are really the only good things AoT has left. The writing not so much. AoT had potential to be special, but it all of it was ruined due bad writing final season
Well even if you exclude the ending this show is still a masterpiece
I honestly liked the ending, now I’m an open minded person which Is why I’m here, watching this video trying to get the other perspective. I still like the ending but I do decide understand its flaws, it’s the same way that I hate gabi but also understand that her point was to mirror Erin I can admit she’s not objectively bad compared to literally the rest of the cast but I still don’t like her and I know it’s cuz I was attached to Sasha
Maybe they're not emotional planks of wood like y'all and have better attention spans. Ending haters are usually people who struggle seeing someone cry out of frustation like Eren did. But so many elements like the insane foreshadowing, world building and compelling characters who are actually written like humans (with flaws) are what make AoT a masterpiece in story telling. Very little animes can achieve that.
How u got so few subs with the quality of your videos is beyond me. Loved the vid. Thank you!
One thing that I have always noticed about AoT is how the characters feel like robots that move the plot along sometimes.
Because it's made by an "architect" writer. It's planned from beginning to end unlike, for instance, game of thrones, created by a "gardener". In aot the plot > the characters, in got the characters > the plot. They move it forward
@@annett_55555 yeah but they could still feel more human idk.
@@TheRealHerbaSchmurbain s 1-3 they kinda did but post-timeskip everything was sacrificed for the sake of the plot
This is by far one of the best breakdowns of the Attack on Titan ending issues and inconsistencies.
Despite the scuffed audio, I do think this is among the better videos about SnK's ending. Your no-nonsense attitude helps; I get turned off by people trying to be sensationalistic.
Appreciate the feedback. I'm really happy with the script but yeah I feel like the audio sort of holds it back. It'll be better next time
Unpopular opinion: the dubbed version got the sentiment of some of Eren’s feelings better. In the scene where he says “because I was born in this world!” The English dub version was “because the outside world is my birthright!” Which I thought sounded so badass the first time I saw that scene.
True that dub is probably what the scene actually means in a Japanese context, instead of the literal translation.
Still doesn't change the fact that he abandoned his dream and decided the flatten the outside world.
@@Benzil_infinityso you misunderstood the story cool. 👍
You can have your view on the story but saying he abandoned his dream is absurd to me
Lol same excuse as usual.@@godspeed4531
Finally... someone who doesn't dick ride AOT.. Great video
I hope more people see this ending for what it truly is: A Half-Assed Retcon.
why? its just not true. The ending is pretty good.
@bogjesrbin484 it's not a good ending.
It's a generic Disney-ish ending. Since when AOT story was black and white?
The ending literally tells you who the bad guys are and it's not the world, it's Eren.
But he's also the good guy you see because he became a mass murderer for the sake of his friends.
And who are totally grateful he killed millions for their sake.
Perhaps, this is good enough for you. But this ending is a mess in its tone, in its message and its narrative.
If genocide bad, why make Eren a tragic hero?
@@rivenskyallonce So you want it to be black and white story, and you are upset that its not the case
@@bogjesrbin484 you didn't read what I said
@@rivenskyallonce no, I did. It’s just you didn’t watch the anime properly. Because last time I checked, erens closest friends killed him to stop the rumbling, even though they knew, that the world was preparing to commit a genocide of eldians on the island. But they just couldn’t accept that outcome of erens plan. And you say it’s white and black?
My god... I am not kidding, this is one of THE BEST videos on how bad AOT's ending was.
The entirety of season 4 left me unsatisfied. I was just confused about so many things being contradicting/unexplained. Then, I went on the internet and got swarmed with Eren fanboys and "AOT is a masterpiece"-believers, making me question if maybe I was too stupid to understand the story just like they said? Maybe it actually is good? So I started to try and find explanations (=excuses) for parts of the story that left me confused.
You video not only validated me in my initial thoughts about the series and added new inconsistencies to think about, but also destroyed the very excuses for the plotholes that I made up in my head to try and convince myself that it wasn't that bad and that maybe I am the problem.
Thank you for putting me back on track. You are amazing and deserve WAY more followers and recognition!
If iseyama wanted to go the genocide route it shouldn’t have been a half assed 80%. Make it 100, the whole moral of the story is the endless cycle of violence and it’s obviously apparent that even with a completely homogeneous society that conflict will arise and war is inevitable. You can keep literally everything else just change the fucking number, kill (at least) most of erens friends, then have Eren remove the titan curse so he lives out the rest of his life in mental turmoil yet simultaneously being satisfied that he carried out what he truly wanted.
Conflict and war will never end. Ending haters know that. Eren's goal was never to end Conflict among humans, he wanted to end the racism and cycle of hatred against his island people. And Isayama wrote AOT in such a way that either the world genocides Paradis or Paradis genocides the world. He finished 80 percent rumbling and the remaining 20 percent destroyed Paradis. Eren did not even secure his friends' future because the yeagerists on the island will kill them in an instant LOL. Eren is a failure and ARMIN is a joker. The formation of Alliance is the dumbest thing in fiction because they want to protect a world that hates their island
@@raidenstark4964 fax, people seem to forget that falcos friend literally said that some countries outside of marley hate eldians even MORE than marley. What a fucking joker of a ending 🤦♂
@@conehead4133I guess that means they all deserve to die then??
Thats not the moral of the story god damn
@@raidenstark4964 The ending is so funny because it was building up to argue about how cyclic violence would eventually lead to the ultimate end, i.e. genocide or some equivalent, and yet it proved that genocide would have been good for the Eldians because by leaving 20% of the world, that 20% rebuilt and then nuked the Eldians out.
Absolute comedy.
It’s genuinely so bad. The only reason the majority of the fans like it is because they are anime consumers. Inconsistencies, the story not taking itself seriously, the poor dialogue, characters having very little response to extreme events, and the trope of love are all things that are common in shonen writing. In the span of a few chapters, AoT went from being a debatable seinen to being an objective shonen. And that’s where it fell
this has to be one of the worst takes ive read in this comment section. yes eren went full shonen murdering the whole world lmaooo
The way the same could be said about you and all the ending haters
@@syzm1klmaooo fr what is bro talking about he literally wiped out 80% of the global population 💀
bruh, shonen doesn't mean poorly-written, and seinen doesn't mean well-written. this is such a seinen elitist comment lmao
I just reread this comment and lmaooooooooooo
fucking great video. ending defenders are unable to come to terms with the points you made. all they offer in response is their shitty headcanons
Aot Main theme is how you should always love your abusers :
1. Annie with her Abusive Dad who used to beat the shit out of her she still love him
2.Ymir with king Fritz who basically burned her village killed her parents and cut her tongue and rpe her she still love him
3.Mikasa with Eren who called her a slave and said he hated her and committed the worst crime in history of mankind she still love him
4.Historia with the bully farmer who threw stones at her she still love him
You being sarcastic?
@@beerussama8128 I mean the whole ending was a comedy shitshow , and yeah I am from Titanfolk
@@aegontargaryen4801what a man you are
@@aegontargaryen4801Eren protected and loved Mikasa
He only said those things to push her away
@@alrulz6402eren didn't protect mikasa. He endangered her
I wish those annoying ending defenders would actually take time to watch this well made video. You are backing up your claims by using actual source material and don‘t rely on weird headcanon. Well done man🙌🏾
I watched it and still think it didn't ruin anything for me. I walked away thinking about what it COULD'VE been rather than just straight-up hate. I still love the show, but the ending is a prime example that endings are vital to a story.
I watched the whole thing. Most of his points require cherry-picking of information or no critical thinking skills.
@@FoodudeThank you, I thought I was the only thinking that. Of course Aot isn’t perfect and has inconsistencies, but most of his points in the video were pretty much opinionated and viewed through a single perspective. The video did not change my opinion though, I found the ending great
@@Явозбужден I agree
@@Foodude Show the Cherry Picking and Lack of Critical Thinking
Ending Defenders: Eren's 19! Of course he's breaking down over Mikasa!
Also Ending Defenders: Eren killed two grown men when he was 9. Of course he's a psychopath!
Can you elaborate? Not trynna sound hostile I just want to understand what you mean
@@bradmotz4755 I think he is making fun of ending defenders who use stupid excuses to justify the bad writing we got. Eren being a psychopath and crying over Mikasa are out of character for him. Eren killing 2 grown men does not mean he is a psychopath but rather he will use violence towards those who try to hurt him or or his friends, who hate him for no reason, who try to take his freedom away. But in the ending it is implied that he is just a crazy psycho so they use it to justify that. And the age thing to why he suddenly started being pathetic and crying over a girl.
@@essjay0907 okay gotcha. I skipped the "Eren's a psychopath" section in the video and didn't understand how those two points connected. Thanks for explaining for me:)
@essjay0907 I'm going to be honest. Eren has been always kinda on the deep end , even with the kid excise thrown aside. There early points in the show where he absolutely takes pleasure in killing titans with big grin plastered on his face. Personally, him being a psychopath has more merit to it than I thought ngl
@@theretroshogun2961 bro there is a difference in killing titans and killing innocent humans, He never showed any interest in killing innocent people ever. I don't remember the show completely but when he learned that regular titans are humans, he did not enjoy killing them then. He cries infront of Ramzi and begged for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He did not enjoy killing innocent people, he just thinks that is the best and permanent solution to the problem. Doing genocide to watch a view from a book is a different level of crazy. And even if that is the case then he should not have been shown as a pathetic guy who just lost his mind with power. And all his friends see him as a hero and cry on his grave forever.
Really good video, high production value and great points made all in all. This is by far the best critique of AOTs ending that I've seen
I'm late to the party, but wow, this was brilliant. Thank you for making it and calling out these canyon-sized plotholes. Isayama fumbled it, Period.
13:46 THIS!!! I didn't fking care about any romantic side plot, how the hell did the end of AoT become a shipping war rather than an ideology war
ideology war?
@@DundGEren desire to protect paradis to the point of annihiliating his enemies vs armin's conviction to save the world and pay the consequence. That is what the final chapter should've focused on since its literally the conflict after season 3
@@TruePeaceSeeker Erens desire was never to protect paradis. He wanted to kill all Titans so he can be free from their torment and explore the wonderous nature outside paradis. It was always personal. He just happened to be on paradis side.
So even if this was his ideology, this oversimplified "battle of ideologies" can't work since they are not compatible with the complexity of the world of AOT. Even Eren aknowledges that!
Him going through with killing everybode doesn't grant him freedom. He will die after 4 years due to Ymirs curse, Armin shortly after or both get eaten so that their powers transfer to new people, since the yeagerists would do that for their Nation. Historia will be used as a breeding machine to continue the royal blood so that the power can be used further.
All eldians will either be enslaved under the power of the founder, or he hides and dies and the people of paradis are free and internal konflikt will breed war as even with Titans, corruption, violence and differences in worldviews caused conflict. So the Titans will be used to fight each other, as anyone wants to be like Eren, not backing down. Niiiiiceeeee.
The seasons before showed how Eldians behind the walls are NOT in harmony and in a lot of conflict. What will happen if there is no outer enemy to "unite" them?!
So Eren can't win since his goal is unatainable in a world like that. That is the entire point. He can't change human flaws without enslaving their very will. Paradis will fall! No civilisation is eternal.
Also in S4 Paradis already became fashist, meaning the nations own people become enemies if they think differently than the accepted ideology of the yeagerists. What stops the yeagerists from labeling a non follower as "no true Eldian" after Eren dies, creating a second class of citizens to be treated like dirt? That is the nation to fight for? Really? Another hellscape of a society?
In conclusion: how could Eren even win if he had this ideology? As I see it, making it a mere black and white battle of two clashing ideas doesn't do the worldbilding justice. Not in the slightest!
@@DundG so you really think a shipping war is more compelling than an ideology war? love over freedom? sounds like a downgrade of theme when compare to previous season where romance is not really prevalent.
@@code122 "so you really think a shipping war is more compelling than an ideology war? love over freedom?"
What freedom? TheRyanthunters talked about:
"Eren desire to protect paradis to the point of annihiliating his enemies vs armin's conviction to save the world and pay the consequence."
Where is freedom even mentioned as ideology?
So what ideologies are YOU talking about, that is suppoesedly superior to love?
They don't seem to be the same as TheRyanthunters
100% agree. I remember watching AOT in 2014, as a 13 yo... It's so sad to see this ending. Such a wasted potential - war, titans, genocide, moral dillemmas - and we have tree and love in the end? Wth, Isayama?!
And Levi deserved better than... THIS. All his commrades, his squad, Erwin - died for nothing. Really, really disapointed.
wait, why erwin died for nothing? can u explain? i cant see your point.
@@samuel9294 Because Eren apparently deciding to do an 80% Rumbling, which completely contradicts why Eren does the Rumbling in the first place (and I mean a full 100% Rumbling), results in the absolute carpet bombing of Paradis from the outside world in the future. Also, its implied that the hallucigenia survived, which further implies the Titan powers survived. So all the characters we've grown accustomed to, that we've watched all these years (Erwin, Sasha, Levi Squad, Floch etc), all of their sacrifices mean nothing in the end because the home they all were fighting for, Paradis, just gets destroyed in the end, and like I said, the Titan Powers could have survived, so they never really defeated the Titans. Completely ruins everything from seasons 1-3.
@@theemissary1433 no, the sacrifices didnt mean nothing, eren bought a lot of time before paradis got destroyed, between 1000-2000 years, otherwise they would be gone a lot faster.
@@theemissary1433 also, the titan power is gone, ymir curse (titan power) was destroyed, thats why all shifters disappeared and titans become human again.
@@samuel9294 The island still destroyed in the end by the outside world, regardless of how long that destruction was stalled for. So in the end, my point still stands. All the sacrifices our characters made were for nothing. In fact, this didnt need to happen had Eren just had the balls to stick with the original 100% Rumbling. Then there wouldnt be any more hostility towards Eldians that would lead to the island's destruction.
Also, its been implied that the last scene of the show/ extra manga pages of the boy finding Eren's tree, which looks a lot like Ymir's tree, is showing that the Titan powers did survive, and that theory is further supported by the fact that the hallucigenia was never seen again after the Battle of Heaven and Earth, like what the video said. We dont see its dead body or whatever to get confirmation of its death. If this theory is true, then that makes the sacrifices of our characters even MORE meaningless, especially for Eren because his home gets bombed in the end, and the Titans are presumably still around. Great ending, guys, totally
this ending so bad, i decided to become a mangaka just to write a better story about freedom
i believe you will be able to do an incredible story, but yeah.... kind of a low bar considering all eren did was futile lol
@@sanctokalibero nah man. I been at it for 2 months. cant come up with anything. hard to write a character that embodies freedom when im basically just a 9 to 5 slave. thats probably why it was so hard to write erens character.
When side characters have more interesting developments than your 2 MC's you know you've fked up.
I just watched the ending last week. Although it was tragic and on its face I would've accepted it as that. It didn't feel particularly earned. What was Eren's goal? To destroy the rest on humanity? Didn't succeed with that. To protect his friends? A good number of them died either trying to help him succeed or stopping him. To end war/conflict? Nope, he just delayed it a bit. To save Paradis Island? That gets blown up in the future. To rid mankind of Titans and all of the turmoil and conflict that comes with it? Nope, that's going to happen all over again. He is either a one note villian, who wanted to destroy the world because he simply wanted to or he is a prisoner of fate, trapped by a perspective that no humam can truly understand. Either way, I can't say I really care for either reason. I would love to see a well thought out/civilized discussion between two people on opposing sides of view to the AOT ending.
I just watched it myself and I want to add to your comment with my counterpoint on Eren. Being as I just watched it, I have to still think about it to develop my final conclusion but I can tell you what my immediate interpretations of what I saw. In the scene with Armin and Eren talking when Eren finally reveals he’s just an idiot who got power, that was the biggest takeaway for me. He’s not a mastermind who had extremely thought-out motivations or someone who understood all the consequences of his desires, he just wanted something really badly and had the power to do so. He could see his entire future but he couldnt change it because he just didnt want to. He justified it as protecting his friends because that made sense, but in reality humans do things for complex reasons. I think people wanted to see Erin as much smarter and like an unwavering icon of his own beliefs but he is an incredibly human character who made mistakes, he just had so much power that his mistakes were multiplied by the millions.
I think overall there were a lot of powerful messages about nihilism and the meaning of life in the last part. Armin talking about how even if there is no meaning to anything other than the desire to stay alive, humans still feel meaning in anything on earth. Even if the world follows the same path of war and destruction, it doesn’t change humans wanting to live and find meaning. That was my takeaway on the boy and his dog finding the tree in the end, the tree and whats inside were symbols of the strong desire for life forms to live despite everything going on in the world, and its up to interpretation on what form that would manifest as in the future.
Even if you still don’t like the ending I hope me sharing my views can at least make it more interesting to think about :)
I appreciate this analysis, it sums up most of my views on the ending pretty well. It was very bad and illogical.
My god bro cooked with this video
For real though this is is probably the best explanation video for why the ending was bad that I’ve seen yet. I’m subbing for that on its own.
Actually explained everything wrong with the ending clearly and concisely. Even cooked with which OSTs he put on each section. Right now I can’t even think of anything he missed.
To be fair though I bet I will, I swear this ending has an unlimited number of plot holes, character assassinations, retcons and shit writing😂
Seeing analyses like this make me feel as dumb as Eren did in his final convo with Armin. Maybe it's because I watched the anime gradually as new episodes came out, and with the large gaps between seasons (or parts of seasons), I just forgot some details. Maybe it was the shear amount of loose ends left at the end that made me miss a bunch of them (I did clock how unnaturally kind everyone was to Annie, but missed a bunch of other details the video mentioned). Either way, I didn't think the ending was that horribly written until seeing this video, and I can't believe how much of the horrible writing went unnoticed by me.
same lol, I knew the ending was not the greatest (especially with the insane level of plot armor) but this video really opened my eyes, to take a masterpiece and just completely derail it like that.
Thank you so much for this video, I was sure I was going crazy, there are so many people not only calling ot good but perfect. I specifically liked that you focused a lot on characters, unresolved plot threads, themes and tone rather than plot holes. Like plot holes are really bad but I would have forgiven it if he characters were well written. Really good essay, specifically loved the section on Ann and armin. They are so shockingly badly written and no one acknowledges it.
Noone acknowledges it because it is straight up not true. You're just baby rage mad for some reason.
Brilliant analysis! Keep it up man!
A guy with 20000 IQ
Ending defender are just coping at this point. They think that symbolism can be an argument against logical storytelling. The logic behind Ymir waiting for Mikasa for 2,000 years because she wanted to see her example of a decision she couldn't make herself in the case of Fritz is stupid, because the story forced the determinism card into the outcome. Considering that Ymir is a being that transcends time she should know how the world timeline, time, and fate actually work. Therefore Ymir should know that Mikasa's decision was not a decision, but predetermined outcome written in stone, and despite seeing this "example", she herself would never make a similar decision in the case of Fritz, because it is written in stone that she would never do so.
Bruh, if anyone is coping it's you guys. Look at this fucking comment section where everyone is going on about "I thought I was crazy, but I am SO glad there are other people who agree with me!"
@@adsafgasgasdfasdf Tell me one.
@@gazelle_diamond9768 Dude, just watch the video. You already have your answer. I too, used to be just okay with the ending, until I took the advice to look back at the series as a whole, and remember the character arcs and motivations, themes, and plot of the story and then I realise how botched this ending was. Never in my life did I think that I would lean towards Yeargerist views in the span of a few weeks, due to me to just looking back carefully at the story prior to the ending. This video just articulated what I saw into a much clearer format.
Genocide is obviously wrong. Eren knows this. People who criticise the ending know this. People who defend the ending know this. But the story has been shaping to the point where its an "us vs them" situation. One shall stand, and one shall fall.
Eren wanted to resolve this conflict through a much more peaceful solution, but when we saw how negotiations were just... impossible, the Rumbling was unfortunately the only option left.
Literally no one criticising defends genocide as a concept, but when looking at the situation at hand, you got to admit, the outside world had it coming. Whether you support the Rumbling or not, you cannot deny that this was simply a consequence of the world's actions. A turn from the Paradisians to counter the outside world's turn in this cruel game of war.
If the outside world wants to mess with the bull, they'll get the horns. And oh boy, did they get the biggest horns. One that will rumble the earth, and all the nations shall pay attention to the reckoning that is to come.
@@theemissary1433 All that means is that you're pretty unintelligent and easily manipulated.
The only good thing about the ending is that future mangakas can look at AoT and go "yeah, so this is how i'm definitely NOT supposed to do the ending"
Thank you for calling out Annie omg i was so mad about so much
Bruh, fuck this ending, i just can t accept an end like that
Wow, you fkn nailed the explanation. This video is now my counter argument against copeful arguments of how “AOT ending was good”
This is such a well constructed video
Very good video! I agree with everything you said here
YOOOOO I watched your videos on the ending back when 139 came out. Appreciate it
Don’t worry guys AOE will happen I won’t give up to my last fucking breath
@@Spryzen139haha really ! Thanks bro. And that makes sense because I agree with every word you said haha
@@Sn_da_1st keep moving forward brother especially with the new released opening the last titan and ending see you later both contains hopium especially the opening
@@TheComfyCouch310Noo. Guys we failed. But there still something, I will never stop hoping. There is volume 35?, a movie?, a OVA? I don't know, I don't care. I want the AnR
This video is so bittersweet to me. Like, you've basically put into words everything I've been thinking about since I watched the finale, but man do I wish it could've been different. Aot is like a 10/10 show for me but this ending really has me so down, even weeks afterwards. Atleast there are some people who agree with me, so thats nice.
Keep crying about it then. Honestly... I pity you.
damn. I didn’t realize just how wasted Historia was
I really cant believe that the ONLY thing isayama fixed in the anime was "thanks for becoming a mass murderer" literally everything else was worse... appereantly eren is just an idiot who got too much power.. aot was my favourite series ever and yams completely ruined it, it really hurts my heart
fr it feels like I've been betrayed by a close friend as silly as that is 😅
@@supremeleaderfrancisco9062 its just so unreal that a nearly perfect Story got ruined so badly. I followed this masterpiece nearly a decade
@@invizzy how would you have preferred it to end? Im curious.
@@ziyadfara4760full rumbling, it doesn’t make sense for Eren to be for anything other than a full rumbling.
Either the rebellion dies fighting against Eren & the rumbling happens, or Eren dies against the rebellion & they stop the rumbling,but either way, Eren must be convicted to a full rumbling.
Eren must be the father of Historia’s child, if he survives it makes the “last panel” of the guy holding the child saying “you are free” make sense. But if he survives he has to live with the fact that he killed all of his friends for his people.
I mean, Paradis survived for way longer (unreasonable change tbh), buildings were futuristic
To further discredit the "Eren is a psychopath who kills people because their existence contradict armins book", just look at the end of Season 3 part 2 where the scouts come across a crawling titan.
Floch is about to kill it but eren stops it, calling the titan a fellow patriot. Eren who once swore to destroy all titans, recognises the titan is harmless and leaves it alive.
Basically showing that eren is willing to spare his enemies if they don't pose a threat to him. Eren doesn't care about the scenery itself, rather the freedom that comes with it.
"If someone tries to take away my freedom, I won't hesitate to take away theirs"~ Paths eren
So it makes absolutely 0 sense for eren to rumble the world because it didn't look like armins book. Implying eren would rumble the outside world even if they didn't pose a threat to paradis.
If he only cared about the scenery as 139 wants you to believe, he would have killed that titan because it's mere existence ruins the scenery from armins book.
To further strengthen your point. He also understood that the titans are not the enemy (which also proves that Eren himself has changed and developed).
When Eren is arguing with Floch in the royal ceremony he encourages Armin saying that beyond the walls are freedom. But then he remembers Faye being eaten by dogs.
He doesn't think about random civilians in Marley or an urban landscape. The hatred towards eldians is what stood in the way of his goal.
When was it ever implied that Eren did what he did for the scenery
@@sableyesundaygaming2016bruh the the final movie of the anime. Armin asks “Why did you do it?”
Eren: I don’t know. I wanted to see this sight/ scenary
aot ending is a joke
an unfunny joke
One of the best analyses on AoT that I've seen. Not enough people talk about how Isayama threw the Eren-Ymir connection into the trash. The very first chapter name (To you, 2000 years from now) parallels when Eren becomes the first person to acknowledge her as a human being who deserves to be free, and not a God (From you, 2000 years ago). Eren embodies everything that Ymir desired to be but failed to be in her real life. Eren fights for freedom no matter the cost, to a maniacal degree. He believes in and fought for justice at times where everyone else would accept the injustice before them (Season 1 particularly shows how Eren is unique from other humans in this way). It would make sense for Ymir to see Eren and choose him to be the final attack titan wielder and be the one to meet her. She also cared about freedom (freeing the pigs), but she never fully realized her freedom - she died without having the sense of self-worth to believe that she deserved to fight for her freedom. Eren was put in a similar extreme, yet he still chose to fight for the freedom of himself and his people even if it meant using his powers to kill others, something that Ymir never got to a point of doing.
Mikasa being retconned into the ending as if Mikasa and Ymir had anything in common (or even worse, that Ymir's connection to King Fritz is even remotely capable of being compared to Mikasa's connection to Eren) is downright character assassination. Despite Eren not loving Mikasa and not reciprocating her feelings for him, Eren undoubtedly cared deeply for Mikasa as one of his close friends. Eren was willing to put his life on the line to protect Mikasa (not that she needed him to given her powers, but the sentiment was always there). King Fritz outright abused Ymir in the worst ways possible, explicitly giving absolutely no fucks about her beyond what she could do for him. The comparison is downright ridiculous. Surely Ymir could've found a better person to parallel her situation with King Fritz in 2000 entire years, if it was all really about breaking free from love (which is flat out a worse plotline than the Eren-Ymir freedom angle anyway).
Eren can control Dina in the past that means he can control every pure titan in the past. He could've saved so many lives and come up with a better solution. Paradis would've had 5 shifters in the first episode if Eren used his brain and change the past.
Dina's Royal colossal titan, Grisha would've had Attack and Founder, and 2 more pure titans would become the female and the armored titan