Attack On Titan is the most influential anime in the world right now and is definitely one of the most talked about things to have come from Japan in recent years. Fans spend a huge portion of their time thinking about it and the case for haters is even worse since Isayama's work lives rent free in their minds eventho they hate it. It is one of the few shows in my opinion that has successfully divided its fanbase and created controversy without killing its quality, something which is insanely hard to do. So lets get started shall we?

Art - 10/10
Its gritty and complements the story's current situations The lines and shading on faces may bother some people but they're necessary to show us the stress the characters are going through

Sound - 10/10

The OST, composed by Sawano and Yamamoto are GOATED AF, the voice acting by Yuki Kaji and everyone else is phenomenal. Nothing more to say here.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Its a real shame that I got spoiled to the bone this time so I didnt enjoy as much as I would've liked to but I still found myself cheering and and getting hyped a lot over many of the episodes, especially at the parts I didnt know about beforehand

Characters - 10/10

This season of AoT has no shortage of complex and well written characters. They all get their moments in this series and we see them make tough calls, struggle against or succumb to their demons and of course, against and to each other. All of these guys feel real and their actions and choices all carry weight within the greater context of the story.

We have Floch, a nationalist who's hell bent on protecting his nation, and even though he's an extremist who chose the easiest solution at the expense of omnicide, his extremism is natural and realistic given his circumstances.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we have Jean. He's someone who's tempted with the same easy solution that Floch has sold his soul to and dreams of living a life of comfort one day. He tries look away and focus on his own life, but he struggles to do so and his conscience weighs on him..... he then comes to the realization that he cannot live a comfortable life if its built on the corpses of billions of human beings who did not need to die .

We have Zeke, whose bad childhood has led him to center his entire life around denying his father's ideology, going as far as to believe that the greatest salvation was in not being born at all. He also projects these feelings onto his brother, thinking that he is the same as him, which undoubtedly makes him feel less lonely in a world where he has constantly lived wearing a mask . He also has this savior complex and feels that he has to save everyone and justifies his sins with the end goal of preventing Eldians from being born in a world that despises them, ridding the world of the race everyone is afraid of and giving peaceful deaths to the eldian race. Whether people want that kind of "saving" though is something he never considers, as he seeks to mold the world according to his personal philosophy, something that was itself shaped and validated by his childhood . In the end we see that despite a lifetime spent denouncing his father, he could never truly get rid of the desire to be loved by him

Then of course we have Eren. He's honestly a bit of an odd one in the world of anime when it comes to protagonists. A victim and an oppressor, a man who wishes for freedom above all else, and yet does not hesitate taking the freedom of the billions who did not wrong him. Someone who understands the value of life and yet takes it without hesitation, who knows the pain of losing loved ones and yet inflicts the same to others. He is saddened by the crimes he's about to commit and yet he says that it was all he ever wanted. Everything he does, he does out of his free will and yet because he was born this way from the start, one could say that it was all destined to be this way from the beginning. As the conversation with Reiner proves, he wants to believe that he's doing it all to "save his world" just as he asserts Reiner did, and yet when Reiner breaks down and confesses that he acted selfishly due to his desire for recognition, Eren confesses he too is making a selfish choice. Eren Jaeger is unique indeed, one whom very few people will actually come to understand, both within this show and without. "Eren Jaeger" is a fitting name for this self contradictory monster, this child of evil. After all, he is a "saint" who will selflessly protect those he holds dear and a ruthless "hunter" who will murder all who stand in his way.

Story (10/10)-

The story of this has never been better. It is a constant ride of surprises and thrill and has depth that most mainstream shows hardly ever approach. It tackles discrimination in a very realistic way and takes us through the viewpoints of everyone involved in it. From victims who have been taught to hate themselves, to perpetrators who can be seen interacting with people normally, amiably and even showing kindness until they discover they're from a certain background. It goes beyond the narrative of victims vs oppressors and aggressors vs defenders and takes a very nuanced take. In truth, the oppressors arent monsters but are only people who have been influenced by certain stereotypes and narrations of history. They are people who have been lied to by others who had also been lied to and once they begin to interact with people they once called "devils" we see that those views shift entirely. Hate is also shown as a multifaceted issue. It does not grow out of thin air but is actually a product of a mixture of propaganda, history and differing perspectives and beliefs. There is also no homogeneity in hatred. Some people hate all Eldians, others hate the Paradis ones more and treat the ones in their neighborhoods with disdain. Others go as far as to sympathize and pity the eldians amongst themselves but hate the ones from Eldia.

However Victims are often not innocent as well. A victim might descend into doing the same things he hates his oppressor for doing to him. oftentimes a victim may identify people, comprised of mostly innocents, as the "oppressor" even though they had no knowledge of or decision making capacity in the oppression that was being done by people representing them. They were simply taught to hate and since they never had any exposure to anything other then that, could one really blame them for their racism? Thus a victim switches roles with his oppressor and kills innocents for the fault of others despite themselves being subjected to the same unreasonable cruelty. Attack On Titan manages to encapsulate all that, , while delivering its final verdict

"We are the same"

And thats perfectly true. People everywhere are the same - some are truly good, most are just tying to live and would be satisfied with just being happy along with their loved ones, while a minority are despicable. Aside from this, history has shown that all people have the same propensity for violence and discrimination. The Oppressed and the oppressor are segregated by only victory and loss and this story could well have been one about "heroic" Marleyans fighting for freedom from their tyrannical Eldian overlords if only Karl Fritz had not retreated behind walls.

Aside from that it also gives us complex moral dilemmas. Killing the world for crimes most people have not committed is wrong, but its understandable that people with extreme paranoia of the unknown would resort to such extreme tactics to save themselves, even if its not the only way to do things. In such scenario's its not only natural to want to take the easy way and return to how life used to be, without having to worry about anyone from the outside Likewise, people who have come to an understanding about "the other side" are likely to stand against any attempt they find excessive, extreme and unjust , especially if they believe that there are other solutions to the problem that involve a bloodbath of a much lesser scale.

The two sides have their points and while some in the fanbase would argue that "side A are a bunch of traitors and idiots" while others say "side B are fascist assholes", both bunches of viewers are simply proving the point the show is trying to make - That people will always disagree with each other on complex things and would refuse to to look at things from a viewpoint in contradiction to their own. People might be 90 percent identical and yet still find cause to kill one another cover that 10 percent difference. Which is my key take away from this show - Killing does not solve conflict, it only reduces the number of people capable of fighting. The only true solution is to talk and yet people will hardly ever solve their differences that way. Hence conflict can only be ended by violence. However, violence and distrust remain as they are inalienable to human nature, and that ensures that any end to conflict is temporary and every peace treaty is a just a ceasefire waiting to be broken

Overall - 9.75, rounded off to 10
What Attack On Titan's story does is simple. In a fantasy setting, it gives us a near perfect mirror of the real world conflict, which, I believe is the best thing any fictional war story can do