I liked the Ending of Attack on titan and I’m tired of hiding it! Was it MY ideal ending? No. But I loved the fact that it shows where hate gets you. I think most importantly was all the great highs and lows and memes that came from this series that we enjoyed with our friends and family.

Spoilers ahead!

When you think about how almost every single character in AOT claims to have a selfless reason to do what they do, only for it to later be revealed that their reasons are extremely selfish, it gives you a different perspective on the ending.

Reiner claimed to want to save the world, when in reality he just wanted to be treated with respect and admiration.
Erwin always preached about saving humanity and being the one to make the sacrifice play to secure their future, when in reality he just wanted to prove his father right, and needed Levi to convince him when it came to making the sacrifice play.
Zeke claimed to be trying to save Eldians and give them a peaceful end, when in reality he was just projecting his own nihilism and desire to have never been born upon everyone else (the same way he was projecting his terrible relationship with his father onto Eren).
After Erwin’s death, there were multiple times where Armin attempted to sacrifice himself, claiming it was “For the greater good”, when in reality it was just him trying to run away from the responsibility of being a leader.
Historia during Clash pretended to be a genuinely good person, claiming she just wanted to help people, when in reality what she really wanted was to die and be remembered as a hero.
This is true even for some minor characters, like King Fritz (the one from 100 years ago). He claimed that all he wanted was a paradise for his people, when all he really wanted was a paradise for himself. After all, as Eren Kruger points out, he wouldn’t abandon most of his people in a world that hates them and trapped the rest in a cage surrounded by monsters if he truly cared about them. It’s not a paradise if you’re forced to live there.

And then of course, we have Eren. He claimed that he was just doing what he had to do to protect Paradise, to protect his friends, to end the cycle of hatred. Blah blah blah. And most of the fanbase believed it. And maybe partially one or more of these things were true, but I doubt they were his main reason for the Rumbling. His main reason was of course his desire for “freedom”, something inspired by Armin’s books about the outside world long ago, a concept that even he himself failed to define. Chapter 131 (the best chapter) makes it all too clear that Eren’s reasons for doing the Rumbling are selfish. What does he say when thinking about Ramzi’s death? Not that he doesn’t have a choice, not that it’s the only way, instead he said: “I was disappointed.”

His idea of freedom was the world he saw in Armin’s books, a blank slate untouched by humankind. So when he realised that the world was “different from the world… I saw in Armin’s book” , a part of him wanted to turn it into such a world. But in the end, he couldn’t kill his friends and go through with it. So instead he decided on a half-assed plan where he got a little bit of both. I see some people citing chapter 131 as an example of Isayama retconning the story, I think it’s an example of how it wasn’t a retcon. You can’t praise chapter 131 and then criticise the ending for making it so Eren’s motivations for destroying the world weren’t about saving Paradis, that’s contradictory.

Yes, it’s hard to accept that we’ve been following a person who would destroy the world for his own selfish reasons, but I personally fucking love it. Chapter 139 is rushed, introduces some shit out of nowhere, and has some laughable dialogue, and it has some big logical issues, but I think it gets the themes of the series really well and, completely uncontroversial opinion incoming, damn near fucking nails Eren’s character perfectly. Maybe Eren killing the world to save his people is more compelling to you, but not to me.

AOT No Requiem may have the artwork, it may have some cool dialogue, it may even do some characters outside of Eren more justice than the canon chapters, but for me it just misses the point of AOT and has the most superficial understanding of Eren I think possible. To me, Eren isn’t someone who says “This is the only way to save Paradis.” or “There is no other way but genocide.”, with total conviction. He’s the insane, traumatised person who says stuff like “When I found out humanity still lives outside the walls… I was… Disappointed.”

Attack on Titan is all about perspective, and Eren perfectly represents that. We didn’t have as much emotional investment in characters like Zeke and Reiner, so it was easier for us to realise they were secretly being selfish. Either that, or it was spelled out to us. But with Eren, we’d followed him from the very beginning. We learned to care about him. So when he went to genocide the world, it had to be for a good, noble reason. His friends, his people, to end the cycle, something like that. But really, he’s just like the others.

Like a lot of characters in AOT, Eren is just another selfish person masquerading as someone doing things for some greater good. Some character overcome this selfish desire, characters like Erwin, Armin, Zeke, Historia, Reiner. While other characters just become slaves to their selfish desires, like Eren. “Everybody is a slave to something.” Kenny Ackerman, that legend, he saw the truth before any of us.

There is one character who is completely at odds with this, though. And that’s Ymir (the badass one, not the little girl). A character who constantly claimed to be selfish and only interested in keeping herself alive, when in reality she was extremely selfless. In the end, she died sacrificing herself for Reiner and Bertholdt, two self-described mass murderers. Kenny and Ymir, what badass characters. One realises the truth, while the other goes against said truth.

Man, Attack on Titan is a great series. Flawed, but great. And Eren will remain one of my favourite characters for a long time. Even after the ending, especially after the ending.

Ending is still like a 7/10 at best, tho.

I liked how everything ended objectively, how all the characters’ arcs ended and were tied up, how the war and titans issue was tackled, etc. I just don’t think the final chapter was structured very well in how it got these things across. Big exposition dump from Eren with a lot thrown at us all at once, then a bit of an odd and juvenile outburst from him about Mikasa, then an odd thank you for mass murder from Armin, then a quick story wrap up.

Again, I like the ending and how every character’s arc ended, but that final chapter was just a bit weird.

I agree, I liked the ending and couldn’t have predicted anything that ended up happening. It was a wild ride and I had fun talking about the series with my friends and family who were also interested in it.

And currently it’s still my favorite work of fiction!

Man I honestly wish I could say the same, but it was so underwhelming to me how I was talking with my girl like damn we need at least 10-15 episodes more to wrap it up and then the manga finished in 2 and in that way? I’m still in disbelief how can you make such a masterpiece with so much detail, and then BOOM villain doesn’t win even though he has God powers ????

That is not the ending