Now I understand why this series leaves such a lasting mark on those who watch it. It's not just the action, the twists, or the heartbreak but it’s the weight of its questions, the discomfort in its answers, and the complexity of the characters we grow with.

The ending may leave people divided, but I genuinely believe it was the ending we needed. It wasn’t clean or easy, but neither was the journey. And maybe that’s the point.

Attack on Titan doesn’t just tell a story. It asks what it means to be free, to love, to sacrifice, and to carry the burden of choice. I’m still processing it all, but one thing is clear: this series stays with you.

And yet…Man, does it hurt. I cried for Mikasa and Eren’s story. Its so tragic yet so human. And I mourned everyone else we lost along the way.

Happy endings aren’t always guaranteed and that’s okay. We often turn to stories for comfort, for the hope that everything will work out. But this series reminds us that reality isn’t always so kind. Sometimes, even the strongest love can’t change fate, and even the noblest intentions can lead to sorrow.

We cope with these truths through stories that soften the edges, but every now and then, a narrative comes along that reflects the world as it is: unforgiving, complicated, and deeply human. And in that reflection, there’s a different kind of beauty. One that lingers.

Watched the endning (anime only) and think I missed much of what it was trying to say. Is there an in depth analysis of the anime version or can someone do one for me?

Like the deal with the baby, the Ymir stuff, the last talk between Armin and Erin, why does Eren not speak to Mikasa, etc. Why Ymir is suddenly shown grown up, what the heck is the magic centipede thing, etc.

Let’s take a moment to seriously think about the ending of Attack on Titan and what got us there. Honestly, the ending left me feeling pretty confused, especially with Eren’s death and the strange sense that everything just wrapped up too quickly and in a way that felt almost off. If Eren’s goal all along was to protect his friends, why drag them into such a destructive battle in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep them safe on Paradis Island and avoid pulling them into this disaster?

Eren: Hero or Disaster?

Eren wanted to free his people and make sure they were free. He wanted to create a world without the oppression he faced just because of where he was born or the blood in his veins. We could say he kind of achieved that… but only for his time. After his death, humanity just went back to fighting each other with even worse weapons, as if his actions were just a temporary fix—like slapping a band-aid on a deep wound without actually treating it.

The Paradox of Reality

What really got me was how the writer showed how humans, when given power, can go to extreme lengths. Eren was willing to sacrifice millions just to save a few, even though a peaceful solution could’ve worked with just a small compromise. But that’s the thing: in moments of fear and tension, people come up with brilliant plans, but they’re often disastrous because they come from this place of “I’m the only one who’s right.”

The Tree and the Worm: A Hidden Message

In the end, the scene where the child enters the tree with the “worm” is more than just a symbolic shot. • The tree: It represents humanity’s never-ending curse, this cycle of conflict we just can’t break. • The worm: It’s like the symbol of ultimate power—something that looks tempting but only brings destruction. When the child enters the tree, history starts repeating itself, and it’s like we’re stuck in this endless loop of the same mistakes.

The Ending: A Lesson or a Reflection of Reality?

The ending was shocking because it didn’t give us the closure we expected. The peace that was reached was fragile, like the writer was saying, “This is the reality of humans. The conflicts will keep going, even if we sacrifice everything to try and stop them.” Eren was someone trapped in a terrifying contradiction. He wanted to be the solution, but in the end, he became part of the problem. The ending isn’t happy, but it feels real—it’s the reality that we humans keep making the same mistakes because we refuse to look at the root causes of our problems.

That’s the tragedy of this story: there’s no real win. It’s just another round of history repeating itself.

Just finished listening to a podcast epsiode where they briefly discussed the ending of AOT. The conclusion was that the ending was confusing and felt unsatisfactory. And I'm a little confused by this?

I felt like the ending made sense? To mee, it seemed that AOT was an observation about society and human nature. The show was about the never ending cycle of violence and trauma that humans throughout history have gone through.

I guess I just wanted to see how everyone else felt about the ending of Attack on Titan? How do you interpret the ending?

Watched the endning (anime only) and think I missed much of what it was trying to say. Is there an in depth analysis of the anime version or can someone do one for me?

Like the deal with the baby, the Ymir stuff, the last talk between Armin and Erin, why does Eren not speak to Mikasa, etc. Why Ymir is suddenly shown grown up, what the heck is the magic centipede thing, etc.

I finished watching it a few weeks ago and I thought it was amazing, the whole story from the beginning, the Ymir part was interesting... one thing that really got to me was that the ending of season 2 had almost the entire story spoiled there, I didn't understand anything when I saw that ending during season 2...

I found the ending sad because of the explosion that happened but also mainly in that world, where there was only death and sadness, it was the "only" solution that Eren found. And in the end Mikasa was still alone, and the two never got together.

For me, despite being a villain, Eren was also a victim because his life was one misfortune after another and resulted in him being killed by the greatest love of his life.

This anime reminded me a lot of the Netflix series Dark, and a little of the feeling I felt at the time too.

For me they could do more AoT where Eren somehow didn't die because of the paths and I don't know, he goes back to the future after everything ended because of the tree and I don't know, he tries to redo things... I would like a happy ending for that trio of friends who lived in a cruel world

I know this is controversial, but I think SnK has a beautiful, excellent ending. I don't think Iseyama-Sensei could have written a more fitting end to Shingeki No Kyojin. Its a convoluted end, yes, but on rewatch, it makes a lot more sense.

To understand, lets start from the beginning. The Story of Ymir the Slave, The Founding Titan. Its gonna be LONG and some of it is speculation/headcanon by me so bear with me please.

Ymir was a young slave girl who was bestowed a terrible power. Being in slavery for so long, she had accepted her fate, fighting the battles of her captors.

And Like Many slaves have often done all throughout history, she came to love her captors. I know it seems weird and nonsensical, but it is a documented behaviour throughout history among slaves and people living in captivity or oppressive conditions. Call it a really terrible case of Stockholm Syndrome. Trauma does nasty things to a person's mind.

Ymir went as far as to give her life for her captor....but she did not die.

Instead, She found herself trapped in the Paths for eternity. And whether it was the trauma of death..... or the horrible betrayal she must have felt when her monstrous captor fed her corpse to her own daughters............her mind finally shattered, reverting to her childhood state of fearful obedience to her cruel captor.

And so she built his titans for him in the Paths......the words of her captor ringing in her ears......eternally trapped in her own version of Purgatory.

But it was not the end. Maybe it was the Time she spent in the Paths, or maybe it was something else.........either way, A New Desire began to surface. A Desire that had led her to set those pigs free. A Desire that had led her to escape her prison and eventually that lake where she found that creature.

A Desire to Be Free.

And while her slave-like obedience continued, this desire sprouted a different personality in her. This personality began to set the stage for her eventual escape from the Paths and from this world.

This Desire even manifested itself into a New Creation. A New Titan. One whose bearers wholly embraced that desire......The Attack Titan was born.

The Attack Titan's powers are poorly understood. In the Paths, Eren asks Ymir, "Are you the one who led me here?" In the ending, we Eren strung up like a puppet in the Attack Titan's Mouth.

I think that the Bearers of the Attack don't see the future. They see what Ymir wants them to see. Ymir....or atleast the part of her that wants to be free.... isn't showing them the future, she is fabricating memories for them and implanting them in the bearer's memories. We know for a fact that Ymir can mess with their memories, even the Ackermans.

This is also backed up by how Eren experiences the Future memories. Always in fragments, always seeing pieces only, never the whole picture.

I don't think Eren was controlling his father or that Dina. Why would he? If he was controlling Dina, why not send her somewhere else? Condemning his mother to die makes no sense...for Eren.......unless it was NOT him who did it.

Everything we see can be achieved by Ymir simply manipulating Eren's and Other Attack Titan bearer's memories.

And all that time, that part of Ymir has been leading the bearers of the Attack Titan.....to Eren. We know that was happening because we know that Ymir has been watching Eren through Mikasa's Eyes.

As Eren himself says to Ymir when he grabs her in the past, "Are you the one who led me here? You've been waiting all this time...For 2000 Years....."

Ymir could not have escaped the paths by herself. King Reiss's heirs held the Founding Titan and they were all bound by his Oath. She needed help. She needed someone to steal the Founding Titan to break free.

She had been leading the Bearers of the Attack Titan using memory manipulation.....all for this exact moment as shown in the above picture. For someone, ANYONE, to give her the comfort, the courage, the strength, to break past her slave programming and the means to seize her freedom.

It is important to note that she was not all-powerful. She did not have complete control over the centipede beast and the founding titan. She could only use its power to create new titans and do memory manipulations.......She could not seize the founding titan herself, the centipede would not allow it for it would jeopardize the beasts existence.

The Beast shows some intelligence in when we see it, spreading its gas to create pure titans, trying to run to Eren to safeguard itself.

This is what it was all for. To Free her from this miserable fate. To END this miserable world she had unwillingly created.

Ymir linked her existence to Eren's, then had Mikasa kill him, so she too could die.

For the Rest of the World, the Rumbling was a cataclysmic event. For her, it was an escape from this horrific, miserable world. And the Best Thing to happen to her by far.

A Death on her own terms.

As for Eren, he never had any control over any of it.

Yes, he had the choice between committing the Rumbling/Genocide and continue the Status Quo of Eldian Oppression and Persecution. But that was about it.

An Important thing to note is that Ymir's Plan works IF and ONLY IF the world becomes horrible enough for the User of the Attack Titan to consider using the Rumbling.

It hinges on the vicious cruelty of the Marleyans as well as the Oppression and Subjugation and eventual radicalization of the Eldians.

It works only if those two things happen. In fact, her plan pretty much hinges on it. And given what she has endured, its almost stupid for her to not bet on humans being cruel.

In other words, The Rumbling just would not have happened if the Marleyans had simply chosen to NOT persecute the Eldians, to ease up and move on and work towards progress.

Eren was not born as the Devil he became. And if Marley had not forced him to become that Devil, then Eren would never have pursued the Rumbling.

Hell, if the Marleyan leadership like the Tyburs had not been vicious enough to normalize cruelty to the point where feeding an Eldian Child to DOGS was considered "Tuesday" for them, then perhaps Eren might not have been born at all.

Despite the convoluted ending, Iseyama's message rings loud and clear. Do NOT let your hatred go so far that your enemy is left with only the worst possible option.

We cannot have another Versailles or Munich. And we must not become like Nazi Germany.

Hate does not lead to salvation. It leads only to death and destruction.

I was very scared of finishing AoT, because I was afraid of a bad ending that'll leave me feeling depressed and regretting watching it. I actually left the cinema feeling very good, this movie was amazing and and I was happy with how things ended, even though they didn't actually end well at all, but they ended well in a seanse that it was just a good conclusion for this story, people will never stop fighting eachother and there always will be those who will sacrifice everything hoping it'll make the future better. What makes me feel uneasy tho, is... I can only accept this ending if there's afterlife where Eren will finally reunite with his friends in a place where they can finally free and happy. They've all commited sins, especially Eren, but in this scenario there could be an afterlife where it all doesn't matter anymore, where it's all forgiven, as there is no hate, no wars, just peace. But even as I'm writing this, it just sounds too unrealistic and if it is, does it mean Eren will never experience happiness of freedom and peaceful life, will Mikasa and Armin never meet him again, will Connie never reunite with Sasha... Just the very thoguht of this makes me feel so depressed. I really liked how after Hanji fell, she just woke up surrounded by all the comrades she's lost and that just made me feel so happy, brought me comfort that she's happy now, but was this afterlife or it was all because Erdians were still connected with the path at this point and once it was gone they all just disappeared, losing consciousness and never being able to see eachother again?

I guess I'm typing all this, because this movie just hit right in my greatest fears - perspective of losing the loved ones forever with SI was very scared of finishing AoT, because I was afraid of a bad ending that'll leave me feeling depressed and regretting watching it. I actually left the cinema feeling very good, this movie was amazing and and I was happy with how things ended, even though they didn't actually end well at all, but they ended well in a seanse that it was just a good conclusion for this story, people will never stop fighting eachother and there always will be those who will sacrifice everything hoping it'll make the future better. What makes me feel uneasy tho, is... I can only accept this ending if there's afterlife where Eren will finally reunite with his friends in a place where they can finally free and happy. They've all commited sins, especially Eren, but in this scenario there could be an afterlife where it all doesn't matter anymore, where it's all forgiven, as there is no hate, no wars, just peace. But even as I'm writing this, it just sounds too unrealistic and if it is, does it mean Eren will never experience happiness of freedom and peaceful life, will Mikasa and Armin never meet him again, will Connie never reunite with Sasha... Just the very thoguht of this makes me feel so depressed. I really liked how after Hanji fell, she just woke up surrounded by all the comrades she's lost and that just made me feel so happy, brought me comfort that she's happy now, but was this afterlife or it was all because Erdians were still connected with the path at this point and once it was gone they all just disappeared, losing consciousness and never being able to see eachother again?

I guess I'm typing all this, because this movie hit me right in my greatest fears - losing the loved ones forever with no chance for reuniting with them.

TL;DR I find the Last Attack an amazing movie and I am happy with the ending, but only as long as there is a chance for afterlife where they all can meet eachother again. I can't stand the thought that it could end so tragically and there will be no peace and happiness awaiting them at the end.