I have been watching Attack on Titan for the last couple months because I believed that they were wrapping it soon, naive person that I am. I have now seen everything up to The Final Season: The Final Chapters (part 1) and I have to say: I waited 10 years... for this?
*TOTAL SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME FROM HERE ON*
In my opinion the show had a really great premise. Humanity is pushed to the brink by enormous titans that are incredibly difficult to kill and only exist to eat humans. This is all the show needed. You could have made a great show from this premise, leading to humanity triumph over the colossal menace. But no, the author felt that he needed to pile on twist after twist until the whole thing is so ridiculous you don't even know what anybody is fighting for anymore. Basically the show has been on a downwards trajectory ever since Eren found he was able to turn into a titan. The author is just constantly pulling twist after twist out of his butt (usually whenever he feels like he needs to raise the stakes), and most of it doesn't gel with what we've learned before.
Titans are pretty much gods and can just do anything the plot requires of them. They can regenerate, they can pull infinite amounts of mass and energy out of nowhere. Reiner can transfer his consciousness from his brain into the rest of his body when his head is cut off! He regenerates his head! This one in particular is so incredibly stupid. How can you even kill a titan if this crap is possible? It just makes everything meaningless. Regular humans are already completely outmatched against even regular titans that the fact that the human titans can't even be killed if you cut their heads off just makes it stupid. Ok, continuing on. Eren can see the future and influence the past! No, just stop. Why!? Why does the Attack Titan have this ability? Why? It's not the See the Future Titan. It's so completely ridiculous and there's not even a hint of an explanation of where this power comes from, he just has it. Ok, fine, Eren has now read the script for the rest of the show to give him a reason to do all the nonsense that he's about to do. Whatever. Zeke's spinal fluid once consumed let's him permanently turn any eldian into a titan at will! There is no regard for distance, nor for the length of time that has past since consumption. If you have ever so much as had a drop of beast titan spinal fluid in your mouth you are susceptible. Not only that but it allows him to control the titans created this way afterwards! What? But we've just spent, like, 50 episodes establishing how this was the Founding Titan's whole bit, and now Zeke can just do it out of nowhere because he has the royal blood. We'll come back to this royalty stuff in a moment, but this is just overkill. There's no way to fight against this. You might think that mixing it with alcohol might damage the spinal fluid, but no, it's fine, a titan can do anything.
But I just mentioned the Founding Titan, and we can't let that one be outshone now, can we? So the Founding Titan's power... no... give me a moment... *deep breath* ... The Founding Titan's power, is that it has complete control over EVERY PERSON OF ELDIAN BLOOD, EVER!! It can do anything: erase their mind, control their actions, change their freaking DNA. Anything at all! Distance is no object. Ymir is still in there, and the royal family has had this power all along. And suddenly any remaining vestiges of logic crumble and the plot collapses in on itself. Nothing at this point makes sense anymore. Why, possessing this power, has the Founder seen fit to make it so that their kin turn into massive, mindless, killing machines, whose sole purpose and desire is to consume the flesh of humans, including the others of their race? Think of all the suffering, destruction, and death caused by titans throughout the show. What was the point of any of it? I'm sure somebody would say something about atonement for past sins (committed hundreds of years ago by people no longer alive, which nobody on the island still remember) or something stupid like that. It's just ridiculous though. Just make it so they don't have an insatiable desire for human flesh! Just don't wipe their personality! Just make them peaceful, productive, helpful! Just change their DNA so they don't turn into titans! There is no longer any reason for the show to have happened, at all. It shouldn't have happened.
Also, it looks like the kid titan is going to grow wings and fly in the last episode, but that's just hardly even worth mentioning at this point. Titan powers cannot get anymore ridiculous, or destructive to the plot anymore. Titans can literally do anything, and it just doesn't even matter anymore.
Ok, so that's what titans do, but where do these fantastic creatures come from? A random slave girl found a jellyfish in a tree and it made her a god for no reason. That's all. There is nothing narratively satisfying about this. She possessed no outstanding virtue, she didn't arrive at this power through any effort of her own. She just found a jellyfish and became a god. There apparently being only the one jellyfish in the world. What is it? Where did it come from? Why can it bestow unlimited power? These are not questions worthy of being addressed among many others. This is oddly reminiscent of the explanation of the avatar state in The Legend of Korra, but somehow even more unsatisfying. Why did the power split into only 9 human titans among her descendants? Why do people possessing the titan powers only live 13 years despite the fact that regular titans apparently live forever? Why is it necessary to suffer an injury to activate the power? Presumably all of this is subject to change by the Founder, but they just settled on this stuff arbitrarily and don't care enough to change it.
There's another big question that glares out because so much of the plot hinges on it: Where the heck does the royal blood come from? Think about this. Every Eldian is a descendant of Ymir. All of them. Think of a family tree that stretches back a thousand years with a single point at the top. Where does the royal blood come from? It is apparently not diminished by mixed parentage of those not of the royal blood because Zeke's father was not royal and yet Zeke is. How is it possible for there to be only a handful of people of this royal line, and why does it give so much power? It just doesn't make sense, but neither does the rest of the show.
One more small matter to address on titans before we move on, but Eren doesn't eat the Warhammer Titan. He just drinks her fluids. This raises some curious implications, because if it isn't required to consume the entire body to gain the power, why can't you make more than 9 human titans? Just give a hundred people a shot of the blood, or a finger or a foot and have an army of them. Why not?
Moving on from titans, the rest of the characters are not very well developed. Most of them are pretty one note, a product of constantly introducing and developing secondary characters for the sole purpose of having people to die. Mikasa wants to protect Eren, and that's pretty much the extent of her character. Sasha likes food. Armin is smart and kind but not so kind he can't nuke a town if he needs to. Everyone is constantly crying about how much everything sucks and how they can never make up for their sins. After the time skip after the basement it honestly feels like I don't know any of the characters anymore. Eren is doing things that don't make sense because he's read the script. Armin, previously the big idea guy, is just kind of there sometimes and doesn't really do much. Mikasa is kind of in the same boat. The worst part about the last season is that everybody's goals and allegiances are constantly shifting on an episode to episode basis. I could get behind the goal that the characters had at the start: eliminate the titans so that humanity can live peacefully. Now, however, it's all about this really dumb politics with the people who can be turned into titans being persecuted for poor reasons by a nation that wants to conquer the world or something, and everybody is fighting against Marley, and Marley is fighting Paradis, except Eren is actually working with Zeke so that they can make it so Eldians can't breed and they need to take over Paradis to do this, except Eren actually wants to destroy the entire rest of the world, and now everybody else is teaming up to stop Eren. It's all just so convoluted I stopped caring 20 episodes ago. Everyone is constantly teaming up with yesterday's enemy to defeat yesterday's ally. It all just feels so arbitrary and senseless. It feels like it doesn't even matter who is slaughtering who as long as they keep moving forward.
A bit of a step backward but I want to take a moment to talk about how dumb the leadership of the Scout Regiment was. Throughout the show everybody is constantly bigging up Erwin and making out what a fantastic leader he was, but he pretty much got 99.9% of his people killed for no gain. This is a regiment that gets something like 10 new recruits a year or something, and he's regularly sacrificing dozens and dozens on every operation. Like that first operation to expose the traitor, where they lose a ton of experienced soldiers and don't even catch Annie. Or that second operation to catch Annie where they lose a ton of people and catch Annie but she's useless. It's constantly like this, and I just find it hard to believe that this is the best the scouts have to offer.
As bad as Erwin was, at least he didn't make the exact same mistake over and over again like another notable individual. That's right, Captain Levi - I'm going to kill the beast titan - Ackerman. This idiot is such a tease, it drives me nuts. Erwin sacrifices himself and the last dregs of the scout regiment just so Levi and defeat the beast titan, and he does! It's great, and the audience revels as he makes mincemeat out of the beast and stuffs his arrogance down his throat as he is about to make him pay for all the death and destruction he's caused... but then, just before delivering the final blow, he stops. Levi thinks, wait, if we could just feed him to one of our guys we could control the beast titan! Despite the fact that his express orders were to kill the beast titan, despite the fact that Erwin just sacrificed himself and the remainders of the scouts to accomplish this, despite the fact that we've seen Reiner, and Annie, and Bertholdt constantly slip out of their grasps, Levi gets greedy and wants to take the power. And then the ninja titan sneaks up rescues Zeke. You had one job Levi, seriously! But then, four years later he gets another chance during Eren's assault on Marley! He says now is the time to fulfill Erwin's final command and kill the beast titan! So he zips down and shreds him up again, and then he stops, and actually does manage to capture Zeke. But actually this was all pre-arranged with Zeke and now they are going to work together, so whatever. Eventually, Levi catches on to the fact that Zeke's game isn't actually in everybody's best interest and he's betrayed them so he says, now it's time to fulfill Erwin's final command and KILL THE BEAST TITAN! He slaughters the titans made out of his former comrades and handily defeats a, once again, shocked Zeke... and then he stops... AGAIN! He thinks, gee, I could kill him like I said I was going to, but I really want to have the power of the beast titan! He hacks off Zeke's limbs so he can't transform and then puts a bomb in his gut so that if Zeke tries to get away it will blow them both up. Zeke says screw it, and blows up the bomb, and doesn't even freaking die! But then, neither does Levi. So Levi recovers, and in the second last episode reveals that his goal is now to kill the beast titan! Is this a joke? Seriously, am I supposed to be rolling on the floor laughing by now? Because this sounds like a joke. Levi, you already squandered three perfectly good opportunities to kill the beast titan, at this point you're out.
I guess that's pretty much all I have to complain about Attack on Titan, other than the design of the walls was pretty dumb. Just three concentric circles with no subdivisions, so that a single breach causes the loss of an entire ring. The animation and style was pretty good, at least at the start. I felt the later seasons were kind of bleak and just didn't look as good. But the show was definitely all style and no substance, and that just doesn't cut it when you are trying to tell a serious and dark story. Would not recommend.
*TOTAL SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME FROM HERE ON*
In my opinion the show had a really great premise. Humanity is pushed to the brink by enormous titans that are incredibly difficult to kill and only exist to eat humans. This is all the show needed. You could have made a great show from this premise, leading to humanity triumph over the colossal menace. But no, the author felt that he needed to pile on twist after twist until the whole thing is so ridiculous you don't even know what anybody is fighting for anymore. Basically the show has been on a downwards trajectory ever since Eren found he was able to turn into a titan. The author is just constantly pulling twist after twist out of his butt (usually whenever he feels like he needs to raise the stakes), and most of it doesn't gel with what we've learned before.
Titans are pretty much gods and can just do anything the plot requires of them. They can regenerate, they can pull infinite amounts of mass and energy out of nowhere. Reiner can transfer his consciousness from his brain into the rest of his body when his head is cut off! He regenerates his head! This one in particular is so incredibly stupid. How can you even kill a titan if this crap is possible? It just makes everything meaningless. Regular humans are already completely outmatched against even regular titans that the fact that the human titans can't even be killed if you cut their heads off just makes it stupid. Ok, continuing on. Eren can see the future and influence the past! No, just stop. Why!? Why does the Attack Titan have this ability? Why? It's not the See the Future Titan. It's so completely ridiculous and there's not even a hint of an explanation of where this power comes from, he just has it. Ok, fine, Eren has now read the script for the rest of the show to give him a reason to do all the nonsense that he's about to do. Whatever. Zeke's spinal fluid once consumed let's him permanently turn any eldian into a titan at will! There is no regard for distance, nor for the length of time that has past since consumption. If you have ever so much as had a drop of beast titan spinal fluid in your mouth you are susceptible. Not only that but it allows him to control the titans created this way afterwards! What? But we've just spent, like, 50 episodes establishing how this was the Founding Titan's whole bit, and now Zeke can just do it out of nowhere because he has the royal blood. We'll come back to this royalty stuff in a moment, but this is just overkill. There's no way to fight against this. You might think that mixing it with alcohol might damage the spinal fluid, but no, it's fine, a titan can do anything.
But I just mentioned the Founding Titan, and we can't let that one be outshone now, can we? So the Founding Titan's power... no... give me a moment... *deep breath* ... The Founding Titan's power, is that it has complete control over EVERY PERSON OF ELDIAN BLOOD, EVER!! It can do anything: erase their mind, control their actions, change their freaking DNA. Anything at all! Distance is no object. Ymir is still in there, and the royal family has had this power all along. And suddenly any remaining vestiges of logic crumble and the plot collapses in on itself. Nothing at this point makes sense anymore. Why, possessing this power, has the Founder seen fit to make it so that their kin turn into massive, mindless, killing machines, whose sole purpose and desire is to consume the flesh of humans, including the others of their race? Think of all the suffering, destruction, and death caused by titans throughout the show. What was the point of any of it? I'm sure somebody would say something about atonement for past sins (committed hundreds of years ago by people no longer alive, which nobody on the island still remember) or something stupid like that. It's just ridiculous though. Just make it so they don't have an insatiable desire for human flesh! Just don't wipe their personality! Just make them peaceful, productive, helpful! Just change their DNA so they don't turn into titans! There is no longer any reason for the show to have happened, at all. It shouldn't have happened.
Also, it looks like the kid titan is going to grow wings and fly in the last episode, but that's just hardly even worth mentioning at this point. Titan powers cannot get anymore ridiculous, or destructive to the plot anymore. Titans can literally do anything, and it just doesn't even matter anymore.
Ok, so that's what titans do, but where do these fantastic creatures come from? A random slave girl found a jellyfish in a tree and it made her a god for no reason. That's all. There is nothing narratively satisfying about this. She possessed no outstanding virtue, she didn't arrive at this power through any effort of her own. She just found a jellyfish and became a god. There apparently being only the one jellyfish in the world. What is it? Where did it come from? Why can it bestow unlimited power? These are not questions worthy of being addressed among many others. This is oddly reminiscent of the explanation of the avatar state in The Legend of Korra, but somehow even more unsatisfying. Why did the power split into only 9 human titans among her descendants? Why do people possessing the titan powers only live 13 years despite the fact that regular titans apparently live forever? Why is it necessary to suffer an injury to activate the power? Presumably all of this is subject to change by the Founder, but they just settled on this stuff arbitrarily and don't care enough to change it.
There's another big question that glares out because so much of the plot hinges on it: Where the heck does the royal blood come from? Think about this. Every Eldian is a descendant of Ymir. All of them. Think of a family tree that stretches back a thousand years with a single point at the top. Where does the royal blood come from? It is apparently not diminished by mixed parentage of those not of the royal blood because Zeke's father was not royal and yet Zeke is. How is it possible for there to be only a handful of people of this royal line, and why does it give so much power? It just doesn't make sense, but neither does the rest of the show.
One more small matter to address on titans before we move on, but Eren doesn't eat the Warhammer Titan. He just drinks her fluids. This raises some curious implications, because if it isn't required to consume the entire body to gain the power, why can't you make more than 9 human titans? Just give a hundred people a shot of the blood, or a finger or a foot and have an army of them. Why not?
Moving on from titans, the rest of the characters are not very well developed. Most of them are pretty one note, a product of constantly introducing and developing secondary characters for the sole purpose of having people to die. Mikasa wants to protect Eren, and that's pretty much the extent of her character. Sasha likes food. Armin is smart and kind but not so kind he can't nuke a town if he needs to. Everyone is constantly crying about how much everything sucks and how they can never make up for their sins. After the time skip after the basement it honestly feels like I don't know any of the characters anymore. Eren is doing things that don't make sense because he's read the script. Armin, previously the big idea guy, is just kind of there sometimes and doesn't really do much. Mikasa is kind of in the same boat. The worst part about the last season is that everybody's goals and allegiances are constantly shifting on an episode to episode basis. I could get behind the goal that the characters had at the start: eliminate the titans so that humanity can live peacefully. Now, however, it's all about this really dumb politics with the people who can be turned into titans being persecuted for poor reasons by a nation that wants to conquer the world or something, and everybody is fighting against Marley, and Marley is fighting Paradis, except Eren is actually working with Zeke so that they can make it so Eldians can't breed and they need to take over Paradis to do this, except Eren actually wants to destroy the entire rest of the world, and now everybody else is teaming up to stop Eren. It's all just so convoluted I stopped caring 20 episodes ago. Everyone is constantly teaming up with yesterday's enemy to defeat yesterday's ally. It all just feels so arbitrary and senseless. It feels like it doesn't even matter who is slaughtering who as long as they keep moving forward.
A bit of a step backward but I want to take a moment to talk about how dumb the leadership of the Scout Regiment was. Throughout the show everybody is constantly bigging up Erwin and making out what a fantastic leader he was, but he pretty much got 99.9% of his people killed for no gain. This is a regiment that gets something like 10 new recruits a year or something, and he's regularly sacrificing dozens and dozens on every operation. Like that first operation to expose the traitor, where they lose a ton of experienced soldiers and don't even catch Annie. Or that second operation to catch Annie where they lose a ton of people and catch Annie but she's useless. It's constantly like this, and I just find it hard to believe that this is the best the scouts have to offer.
As bad as Erwin was, at least he didn't make the exact same mistake over and over again like another notable individual. That's right, Captain Levi - I'm going to kill the beast titan - Ackerman. This idiot is such a tease, it drives me nuts. Erwin sacrifices himself and the last dregs of the scout regiment just so Levi and defeat the beast titan, and he does! It's great, and the audience revels as he makes mincemeat out of the beast and stuffs his arrogance down his throat as he is about to make him pay for all the death and destruction he's caused... but then, just before delivering the final blow, he stops. Levi thinks, wait, if we could just feed him to one of our guys we could control the beast titan! Despite the fact that his express orders were to kill the beast titan, despite the fact that Erwin just sacrificed himself and the remainders of the scouts to accomplish this, despite the fact that we've seen Reiner, and Annie, and Bertholdt constantly slip out of their grasps, Levi gets greedy and wants to take the power. And then the ninja titan sneaks up rescues Zeke. You had one job Levi, seriously! But then, four years later he gets another chance during Eren's assault on Marley! He says now is the time to fulfill Erwin's final command and kill the beast titan! So he zips down and shreds him up again, and then he stops, and actually does manage to capture Zeke. But actually this was all pre-arranged with Zeke and now they are going to work together, so whatever. Eventually, Levi catches on to the fact that Zeke's game isn't actually in everybody's best interest and he's betrayed them so he says, now it's time to fulfill Erwin's final command and KILL THE BEAST TITAN! He slaughters the titans made out of his former comrades and handily defeats a, once again, shocked Zeke... and then he stops... AGAIN! He thinks, gee, I could kill him like I said I was going to, but I really want to have the power of the beast titan! He hacks off Zeke's limbs so he can't transform and then puts a bomb in his gut so that if Zeke tries to get away it will blow them both up. Zeke says screw it, and blows up the bomb, and doesn't even freaking die! But then, neither does Levi. So Levi recovers, and in the second last episode reveals that his goal is now to kill the beast titan! Is this a joke? Seriously, am I supposed to be rolling on the floor laughing by now? Because this sounds like a joke. Levi, you already squandered three perfectly good opportunities to kill the beast titan, at this point you're out.
I guess that's pretty much all I have to complain about Attack on Titan, other than the design of the walls was pretty dumb. Just three concentric circles with no subdivisions, so that a single breach causes the loss of an entire ring. The animation and style was pretty good, at least at the start. I felt the later seasons were kind of bleak and just didn't look as good. But the show was definitely all style and no substance, and that just doesn't cut it when you are trying to tell a serious and dark story. Would not recommend.
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