This Review Contains SpoilersAot is the most disappointing series I have read in my whole life. It's painful seeing a series that I loved and adore so much getting an ending that imo ruins the entire series. So I encourage you to read the whole review if you can and not just look at the score and leave a dislike (I mean you are gonna do it anyways so let's just move to the review shall we?)
I hear a lot of people talking about how a ending shouldn't affect how great the entire series was and I really like to disagree with that. To me, A ending can make or break a series. Aot is the biggest example of this. It changed many characters at the last second, threw all the foreshadowed stuff out of the window and ended in a way that just makes you feel "what was the point". I will show you what I mean:
Characters:Armin:
I liked armin before the timeskip but after the timeskip is a different story. His whole goal of stopping eren was naive and stupid (Isn't he suppose to be the smart one?). The whole world is shown to hate eldians over and over, they declared war against them so eren responded back to save his people (Which is a good goal) but armin entire motive is "genocide is bad" which is a really weak motive to have for the side that is against the rumbling idea. Even eren calls him out on how he has just become a person who can only say "let's talk". But ok cool, Armin doesn't think genocide is right (weak motive but kinda understandable) but what really gets on me is that he said "Thank you eren for becoming mass murderer for our sake" so genocide is now ok since he is doing it for friends? Dude even punches Eren not because he did genocide but because he didn't respond to mikasa feelings. Also why does him talking work post timeskip, it was shown multiple times pre timeskip that him talking doesn't really work so why now. Ik him convincing marley soldier was a callback to when he failed to convince the eldian soldiers that eren wasn't a threat but this doesn't work. Why would they believe him when one of the people from their race is literally responsible for this and now they are even more scared of eldians than they were before. This is stupid.
Mikasa:
Can't really say much about her since she doesn't have much of a personality. She is just there until she is thrown to be the chosen one out of nowhere. What's sad is that isayama said he wanted to do a arc for her but couldn't because of pacing issues. Also, she should have atleast really moved on from eren. She
kinda did in 139.5 but visiting the grave of your previous ex who killed 80% of the population with your family isn't moving on.
Ymir:
"Ymir was in love with king fritz" do I need to say more? like seriously, why did she lose her will to live if she loved him? why did she free the pigs? What did she even want? Did she see herself in mikasa? And mikasa killing eren freed her? See, that doesn't work since mikasa never really moved on. And even if you wanna argue that she kinda did by the end. It still won't work because the difference between her story and mikasa is that eren actually cared for mikasa unlike king fritz so this "moving on from an abusive relationship" doesn't really work. Ig, only ymir knows the answer to all these questions.
WHY AREN'T YOU HEALING YOURSELF IF YOU LOVE HIM
Eren:
Eren was my favourite character in all of fiction until 139. Eren whole personality and goals being fake was one of the dumbest thing in the last ch (like seriously even his inner monologue was fake???). His whole personality and determination got reduced to nothing so what is there for me to like anymore? It's not because eren wasn't "chad" and "edgy" anymore but it was because his character went through drastic change out of nowhere. One example is that eren had almost died many things and he never once thought of mikasa in those moments and in the final ch eren is saying stuff like "I don't want mikasa to find another man". Another example is that in the forest scene eren learns that if he needs something to done he has to do it himself and what does he do in the final ch? He relies on his friends and It still doesn't work. Eren did the same mistake he was supposed to grow out of 100 chapters ago. Also eren killed his mother? What? The person whose sole motivation at the start of the series was to take revenge for his mother's death killed his mother? And for what? What a waste of development.
How does this:
Turn into this:
Historia:
Got sidelined for the pregnancy plot which resulted in a whole lot of nothing. Why even keep it as a mystery if you weren't gonna do anything with it? Why make an arc focused on developing and making her into this great character if you are just gonna make her married to a person who used to literally bully her. Why make her have so many parallels to ymir if they meant nothing.
Annie:
Never paid for her sins and is forgiven for killing people just cause she ate a pie. The thing is, she was punished in 138 by having her dad turn into a titan in front of him going back to that scene where she killed the levi squad and we saw their parents waiting for them. So why revert it?
Pieck:
Again, like annie, she did horrible things but she is just forgiven by the end of the story with no consequences. In 138, her parents were turned into titan going back to when she helped zeke turn all those people of paradis into titans. But they reverted it. Again. I don't understand the thought process behind this.
Reiner:
A great character arc ended with him sniffing a letter of a married woman.
Falco:
He masters his titan so easily which apparently can fly out of nowhere.
Hange:
Most useless death in the series.
Zeke:
Has many years to think for himself in paths but doesn't do anything until armin shows him a leaf.
Grisha:
Why are you, the one whose sister was brutally murdered by dogs, the one who saw two of my wives being murdered by marley, the one who gave eren his titan willingly, helping to stop eren?
Kruger:
Why are
you, the guy who was sacrificing eldians at marley to look for a better future, the guy who told grisha to not repeat the same mistakes or the same history will repeat again, helping to stop eren?
Levi:
Is mad at zeke but never once confronts annie for killing his squad.
Connie:
"let's save the world" hey isn't this the guy who almost killed a kid earlier this chapter?
Story and Themes:Ending the cycle of hatred:
Even before the added extra chapter. Everybody could tell this "peace" won't have lasted. Eren idea was stupid. He didn't end the cycle of hatred but made it worse. If there's a group of people that you hate with every fiber of your being, and one of the person in that group kills 80% of the population. You will just hate them even more, no matter if the same group of people "saved" you since they started it in the first place. Paradis shouldn't have even survived as long as it did.
Getting children out of the forest:
The last panel of this manga was about a child about to go inside a tree like ymir. Which shows they aren't out of the forest. It has just gotten worse.
Surpassing the father:
Pregnancy plot was reduced to nothing. And even if you take out the pregnancy plot. Surpassing the father never held up to something. Historia became just like her parents, she didn't give birth and married someone out of love. She did so, to protect herself, for her own benefit. While eren, left his burden to his friends and people of the island to deal with. Just like grisha did with him.
Final Words:Opening a lot of plot points is great but it just leaves a bitter taste if you can't end them in a satisfying manner.
