How Attack on Titan Lost Its Way

"You became a sonic channel for our sake." - Anonymous, Only Ymir knows

I tapped out once amnesia magic became a thing. Once you introduce something that can break that many narrative rules it just becomes a soap opera level mess.

The issue with eren killing his mom was it was something explained when we already had a reasonable explanation beforehand. It was just something out of left field made for the sake of shock value when everyone else already previously understood why it happened. They've already told us that abnormal titans don't behave the same way, Dina was an abnormal titan and in her final moments before becoming one she told Grisha she would find him no matter where he was. That was it, that's the explanation that I and so many others had already accepted, so this twist ruins absolutely everything about that notion or about abnormal titans

"If I have to hear one more time that Eren did this for his friends..." Great video, bro, I share your feelings. This story means so much for me too, it's just a part of me, that helped to bear so many things in life. Sad to see it betraying itself. Nevertheless, it is in our hands, to learn from it not only by its good side, but also by its mistakes

Moral of the story: Dont mess with time shenanigans in your story unless you're 100% ready for the possible fallout and consequences

I think this sums it up for me: The appeal to Eren, and the overall story, used to be his false sense of agency being repeatedly torn down by the insurmountable cruelty of the world around him, and then his admirable attempts to influence his and his friends’ fate in spite of it. By the end of the story, it’s revealed he literally had ALL of the agency in the world, and it was himself who brought him to this “predetermined” and “tragic” end. This completely changes one of the biggest narrative themes of the story, all for the sake of an ironic twist that’s convoluted and not quite convincing.

I like that out of all criticisms for "What is the plot becoming" no one references the fact that the unconfirmed "source of all life" is a glowing centipede that turns people into titans and then disappears and no one in universe talks about it ever again

"If you dont like it could you have done better" is a 'defense' I've heard before but from me and everyone I've talked to in regards to the ending many really could have done better and thats the only way to really enjoy the ending. To think about what could have been

Eren killing his mom is one of the worst twists ever . He Always remembered her in his lowest times and then u kill here so ur 4 friends live in fear for the rest of their lives.this isn't it . And the the plot of the future set on stone soo boring so u telling me eren at some point in season 4 just following the future not making his own choices ,that bad for the character.he is not slave to the freedom anymore he is slave to the future and ymir all the time.

This video perfectly summarizes my problems with attack on titans endings. While what we have is fine, I feel like there was so much potential for a beautiful endings that was just completely ruined.

Eren starting a cult and them destorying the world is pretty much his dream come true. Same with crying over losing a girl he pretty much had since day one. If he played sports he'd have a bad average

Totally agree with this analysis. All the "destiny" and "from the future we can change the past" stuff basically robbed Eren of all sense of agency.

Forever ago in high school I watched all of season 1 in one night and was up til 4am because I couldn't pry myself away from it. Went back and watched the rest of it this year and it blew my mind with where it went from what I thought the original premise was.

The only thing that was saving Eren as a character for me after he started getting future memories and starting his heel turn is that we didn’t know, still don’t, how much information he had. How many memories. With the way he behaved after, it seems likes he’s working with bits and pieces up until he’s in the paths and convinces Ymir to help him. That’s when he would have started doing his manipulation bullshit- but, that only makes sense if Eren had Freed Ymir then, thus giving him full control of The Founding Titans powers. But that’s… not what happened. Killing Zeke stopped it, so I guess she was still bound to him, and she wasn’t freed by Erin there, she was waiting for Mikasa. And now the whole thing is muddy- if he didn’t really get the whole founding titan shebang then maybe he did know he killed his mom when he said that, who fucking knows. The waters are too muddy to tell.

I share a lot of the same issues with Eren. For all his talk of defying fate and breaking through the walls, he doesn't do anything to challenge those things post-time skip. The struggle against fate is what makes stories about fate so compelling but there is no struggle for Eren. He ceases to be a character and becomes a plot device.

The ending sucks as a whole.

Bro really got up and said "fuck sonic"

Attack on titan's intended message: We are special because we were born into this world. Attack on titan's actual message: In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law...? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will.

For me the line "a slave to freedom" (as pretentious as it sounds) does explain a lot. He always had the "freedom" of not moving forward, of opposing his own nature (cabin scene). There was a clear path ahead of him he could've chosen not to walk on. The "slave" part is the fact, that there WAS ONLY THAT ONE PATH FOR HIM.

I'm with you, I really wish we understood ymir and the history of the titans. The original sin, the deal with some cosmic entity. I wish the story had gone further into that instead of making the entire story about Eren, because his character was never strong enough to make his having planned everything out believable. Eren doesn't seem like the type to plan anything, much less the entire history of everything.