Attack on Titan's ending is actually GENIUS. Here's what everyone missed.

Notes:
1. Yes, Ymir had her tongue cut out. The reason she doesn't talk isn't important. The point was that she DOESN'T talk.
Not sure why everyone is commenting on this... maybe because I explained the reason in terms of its purpose in the story but yes that's not why she physically can't talk lol.

2. Yes, other people bite their hand very occasionally when it's necessary. The point isn't that Eren is the only character that does this. It's that he ALWAYS chooses to do this.

We must also consider Mikasa's role in this. Ymir needed Mikasa to kill Eren in order to break free from the never-ending attachment and twisted love she had for King Fritz. She saw herself in Mikasa, and had to create the only scenario in which Mikasa would through her own free will choose to kill Eren and sever her bond with him. The only way Mikasa would have ever done this was if Eren became the ultimate monster. I think Ymir took advantage of Eren's personality and used him as a pawn to gain her own freedom. She sacrificed the world to free herself, ultimately I think Ymir is the true villain of the story.

Holy fuck!! When Levi kills Zeke. He just got straight to the point as good ole Levi would always do!!

Reiner does bite his hand when he transforms in the very last episode before fighting Erin’s titan body guards

My perspective of AOT slightly varies from the one you explained for me its less...say, violent
In my opinion the outro music video of the final season pretty much sums up Eren's whole life journey to gaining freedom and his values
The video starts with Eren standing on a flower field (his homeland) and everything else was dark (as he knew nothing else about the world) and then his scarf turns into a bird (with the lyrics "Because we are all free") and the bird tries to fly away only to get trapped in the greenhouse-like-cage and then suddenly with a move of his hand the cage disappears (cause freedom is nothing but an illusion which he realizes after making contact with Historia and gaining memories of past future and everything in between but he also doesn't admit it untill the last episode where he tells Armin that he's a slave to freedom) anyways then he's standing on an open field (as in freedom) with wonder and happiness and fascination in his eyes for a brief moment (which i know wasn't what really happened but i like to believe at some point of his existence he truly felt those emotions) at last we see the grown up Eren taking a few steps in the open field, becoming a flame (the rumbling) and finally disappearing (dying)
The song's lyrics also convinced me on this theory, yes i also believe Eren was born with a very strong desire for freedom and an instinct to fight whenever his sense of freedom is threatened but I don't believe that's all there is to it (Even though Eren himself said in the last part of the anime that he did the rumbling because he always wanted to do that (violence as you said is really a part of him) as he was disappointed when he first learned that humanity existed outside the walls cause who knows maybe his idea of a vast free land was shattered but i'm a romantic so here's me quoting the song lyrics "The world is cruel but I still love you, I will sacrifice anything to protect you, Even if it is a mistake to do so I'll not doubt my actions" all this to say is Eren did what he did because of course a) It was his fate which couldn't be avoided b) "Fight" and "freedom" is simply part of him c) He wanted to protect his friends and give them the freedom he values more than his own life

god im sorry but this guys voice is so annoying

The ending was a piece of trash.

This makes so much sense to me. The thing I noticed when Eren had his last conversation with Armin is that he was very inconsistent in his thoughts. There was this cognitive dissonance that, to me, screamed Ymir vs Erin. It felt like he was doing this because he literally didn’t have a choice but struggle because he didn’t want too. I resonated with this video soo much.

I like your analysis..sounds right on the money

The ending made the whole series so shit its uneblievable

You know you are talking about a masterpiece when you have to look at it from so many differant points of views and it still makes sense, and the mistakes are very minor. The ending is not bad at all, the reason why people say that is cuz well, the show is so dang good but the ending wasnt 100% perfect to them. I love this honestly, cuz it shows how good the show is and how much love there is for it. Deep diving videos like this is amazing!

You’re so wrong. Eren is not the only character that bites his hand to activate his ability. Do you know why he does that? It’s not because he’s a “dog” or “animal” it’s because freida would do that/ the royal blood line would bite their hands (or atleast freida) and since Eren inherited both the attack titan and founding titan he bites his hand, you missed something that was in your face. GOT YOU BOY

Wait, Eren's not Scooby Doo, he's Marmaduke

Video is literally too long he repeats himself differently multiple times

I didn't know that the ending was such a controversy
I personally loved the ending and didn't think that it was "happy". Yes, it had a happy undertone. But I think that's because the war.... the fight and struggle was finally over. It's still sad remembering all. The. Many. Lives. That. Were. Lost.
It's like in real life during the end of WWII. It's a "happy" ending that the killing stopped and the right side won. But the aftertaste of millions upon millions lost lives is still there.

And the extended ending is also fantastic in my opinion. It shows that in the grand scheme every fight, every death is meaningless. Yes Mikasa, Armin, etc. Went on to live (more or less) happy lives. But they're going to be forgotten and history will repeat itself.

I think the lightheartedness of the ending is mainly supposed to ease all the people who have grown attached to these characters and this world and wanted to see them succeed while the real meaning behind the ending is sad and cruel resembling what the whole show meant

I would disagree that the ending is too happy. Eren always had a will to kill everyone that wanted to kill his friends. He wanted to protect them, and that’s what he did, whether it was through Ymir’s will or not. The whole point is that someone was going to survive and “win”, so Eren (and Ymir) chose their people, the Eldians, his friends, and they shouldn’t feel guilty just because they found grace in the eyes of Ymir and Eren. They’re gonna be happy about that whether it’s fair or not. Life’s not fair, that’s what we learn in the whole show.

I think Armin and Eren reach the same conclusion, but Armin is an optimist, while Eren is a pessimist or nihilist, depending on how you look at it.

OH OOHHHHH !!!! The series is absolutely meaningless !!!

So this is what goes on in the head of the ZOOMERS who think the ending was good & why they like it. Both the ZOOMERS & this series are meaningless. hahahaha Thanks, made me laugh.

Your tier list of having Your Name next to Steins;Gate, which is a masterpiece is insane. And why in the hell is Re:Zero that low.

Sorry but this oversimplification of "Eren never had any freedom" or that the "only choices are to fight or die" are just cartoonish. There's no such thing in real life and even if you include time travel in this whole thing, humans live and perceive their lives while making choices - some conscious and deliberate and others are forced upon them by their circumstance or inability to act because of fear, greed, love, or any inexhaustible combination. Eren isn't a dog or a bird, those animals are just metaphors used to illustrate a point. By the way - birds aren't free!!! We humans just like to equate the idea of flight with freedom because of it makes us feel on the inside.

Hi, loved your video! Will do you one better eren isn't a caged dog but a caged pig that was born to be slaughtered. When Ymir opened the cage and he ran he just desperately rebeled against a world that was corrupt to begin with

This video sucks

Eren from the very beginning said he was going to wipe out all titan so i guess he achieve his promise

I’d kill to see a version of scooby-doo that acted and did what Eren did lmao

Man I don't like the ending tbh he could of let eren live and just abolish the titans

It's a beautiful show but you felt weird that nobody really cares about 80% of humanity... Did the US really care that much about Japan when we bombed them? Or for the middle East? Does Israel really care about flattering Gaza? No. Some do but The show is very political all the way throughout and draws examples, symbols and situations from recent history and American liberalism versus a weak people/nation under threat rising up into an authoritarian fascist regime to protect themselves.
So I think they were trying to prove the point that at the end of the day people will be excuse atrocities.
You really don't see these themes in any modern media at least not in the West.

"It's not about love, it's about letting go" that is the deepest truth about this ending, and real message of this show. If anyone is familiar with the work of Jordan Peterson, letting go and allowing our "old selves" to die so that the world may change for better is the most important thing we should learn. Great analysis, you've captured the real and deepest meaning in all of this, thank you ❤

someone finally explained it well. AOT is not a story of Eren being a hero but being a villain. He sees evil everywhere except himself. He is basically a psychopath

I have to correct you on one thing. Eren bites his hand, because Frida, the founding titan grisha ate, use to do it. So eren had this instinct deep in his mind because of that. Frida is the reason eren bites himself to transform. When he protects mikasa and armin from the cannon, the instinct to bite the hand come out because when Frida was in a danger situation she bites her hand to transform, and obviously, eren, finding himself in a dangerous situation, bites himself thanks to the instinct to survive

i wish i was born this fucking stupid, maybe then i wouldnt absolutely hate myself for wasting years of my life on a fucking shitass anime

I think it’s ridiculous to say that the tone of the ending was way too happy. Our characters had suffered so so much it would be too much to then also have them die on top of it. The show does such a good job of showing us both there all suffering, and the suffering of so many innocent people, they show us that it’s not just statistics show us that it’s real pain and they show us that our characters will never really be able to be OK. All of their arks were wrapped up in a satisfying way. I think it was quite remarkable honestly. my only complaint is the loving king Fritz thing. I get the idea, but that was not demonstrated to us in anyway that makes sense and isn’t slightly offensive to subjugated people

One thing: Eren saying to spare that one titan is, because he already knows what is going to happen and that he will lift the titan curse and that titan will become a human again.

Why no one talk about that it could be the will of the shining centipede . Maybe it has its own will to choose the host .

Thank you 🙏

Just defending plot holes, pointless and character-alienating twists and lies. Actually just brilliant shit and nothing more.. 😅

Masterpiece episodio for me

“He’s scooby motherfing doo” loved that

One of the coolest things about this ending is that Armin says that he will tell future generations about what took place. He is the narrator of the show. We are the future generations learning about what happened. It's a way of Isayama telling us to internalize the message of the manga/show, which is that we need to be aware of excuses to continue the cycle of violence, and enjoy the little things in the chaos while we await the peaceful freedom of death.

I'm sorry, introducing time travel determinism in the last act of your story to justify genociding 80% of the planet isn't genius, no matter how much you just sorta synopsize the series.

Man I have been watching literary analyses on AoT and other great series from a wide group of content creators who really try to make sure they don’t cuss for the family friendly aspect.

When you were talking about Eren biting his hand and were just like “….. okay WhAT thE FUCK”

It legitimately made me lol.

Just paused to comment that. The comedic timing along on that made me subscribe.

The only problem I have with the ending of AOT is that both Reiner and Annie were both alive at the end of the series!!!

I think if they went more heavy on the characters realizing that Eren has taken out 80% of humanity it would have worked a lot better, like the scene with the blood sea with Armin and Eren, if the others talked about how eren whipped out so many people and they question what they could have done differently so that they all would be happy and alive

yeah i guess eren does have that dog in him

I can't get over how fruity this guy's voice sounds every time he says "die"

I interpret the main characters from Paradis and Marley divining as a reflection of Eren’s will to protect his loved ones instead of a plot convenience / tone dissonance.

Yes, exactly! We have to ask ourselves why Ymir even made the attack titan in the first place, with its powers of memories of the past and the future. In my opinion, she made the attack titan for this exact reason.

Dumb video is dumb.

you made very good points, for example, Eren being a cruel animal is so true and I felt it throughout the series also he changed the course of his action for those 3 goals you said are true. but all his will and fighting spirit he has are the reasons to justify his action of rumbling and killing 80percent of the world. but it does not mean he was the reason for ymir freedom! eren literally says Ymir was waiting for Mikasa to free her, that can not be a wrong narrative from Eren's side. because at that moment eren knows more than anyone about the world and everything and Ymir

Early on Eren pursued freedom for his self but after kissing historias hand, he stopped pursuing freedom for himself, and started pursuing freedom for his friends and family at the cost of his own freedom