Current Events > Just finished Attack on Titan, was the ending controversial when it came out? Sp

(+) Yeah! (+)

Spoilers obviously

I just binged the Anime over a few weeks and then read the final 8 chapters or so last night once I was done w/ the show, didn't want to wait until 2023 to find out what happens!

Overall I thought the show was amazing, it was very brutal and soooo many characters die throughout the whole thing. It seemed pretty obvious to me though once Eren had the heel turn that he was probably setting himself up as some "big bad" to unite the world against him on purpose. There was a pretty big shift in the story once the Marly/Eldean war became the focus, but I still enjoyed everything quite a bit.

I thought the ending was perfectly fine too, maybe its because I wasn't invested in the story for years and deep diving into all the fan theories on the Ackerman's and founding titan and what not, so I wasn't disappointed by no ground shaking twists or lore reveals at the end. I think Eren probably should have come up with a better plan w/ all the power he had after getting the Founder, but it was interesting being the Attack Titan forced him to be pretty much helpless in somewhat of a time loop, like Dr. Manhattan. I also wish they explained a bit more on what exactly happened w/ Mikasa and her "decision" that finally freed Ymir? Maybe I just missed it because I was reading it at 2 am last night. Also the Mikasa vision came out of nowhere w/ Eren and their alternative universe happy life together... After reading a bit online it seems like Eren visited all of the main characters sometime before the final battle, had a final chat w/ everyone (we see the Arman talk as they go around seeing the wonders of the world), then wiped their memories. Looks like Mikasa's vision was this visit from Eren, and she was able to access it before Eren died because of her Ackerman blood?

Seems like a lot of people were not happy with the ending when it came out though, not really sure why, I thought it was perfectly fine. Overall great story, I kind of want to watch it again just to see all the foreshadowing and references throughout the story that I am sure I missed.

Also I thought the anime was brutal, but holy fuck those 8 chapters I read were super gory lol I guess they had to cut out a ton of stuff to make it TV friendly.

The manga ending was a very clear case of it being changed at the last minute.

People where livid

extremely controversial online, and almost impossible to discuss because of the immense number of fans (probably mostly teens) who only watch because they somehow "ship" in this almost completely romance-free story and thus thought the ending was good because the Cute Anime Boy confirmed he loved the Cute Anime Girl

The plot absolutely falls into the trash after the Rumbling starts. For a story that made a name for itself being so brutal, the fact that the main cast comes to fight a legion of intelligent ancient titans and comes away entirely unscathed is right out of a Disney Marvel movie.

All holes in the plot are waved away by Eren saying "idk lol founder made me crazy, only ymir knows"

Just terrible.

Irony posted...

The manga ending was a very clear case of it being changed at the last minute.

Have we heard anything on what the original ending was supposed to be?

ThePrinceFish posted...

The plot absolutely falls into the trash after the Rumbling starts. For a story that made a name for itself being so brutal, the fact that the main cast comes to fight a legion of intelligent ancient titans and comes away entirely unscathed is right out of a Disney Marvel movie.

All holes in the plot are waved away by Eren saying "idk lol founder made me crazy, only ymir knows"

Just terrible.

im them being safe makes sense cause Eren was never gonna kill them.

Special mention for Eren breaking Zeke's entire resolve and world view, leaving him a broken mess in the Paths before Armin shows up, has a thirty second conversation with him (for the first time, they never met before), and convinces the nihilistic Zeke that life is in fact worth living. Zeke then pops out into the real world and... lets Levi (whose character has been wiped away and has only existed since the time skip in a permanent state of "must kill monke" because he's too much of a fan favorite to die) kill him. Which stops the Rumbling. Why? Ymir is running the show at this point, but when Zeke dies the Rumbling halts for... reasons.

And then Ymir watches happily as Mikasa kisses Eren's decapitated head.

sorry to double post but i just want to reiterate

the last stretch of this manga was so bad it made me reconsider whether i ever want to consume anime/manga again

at the very least i am NOT the target demographic, despite the first 85% of the story fooling me

The ending was controversial TWO times. The original final chapter was about 5 pages shorter and the author, potentially responding to the overwhelmingly negative reaction, added a few bonus pages for the volume release, which were themselves extremely controversial.

KhlavicLanguage posted...

sorry to double post but i just want to reiterate

the last stretch of this manga was so bad it made me reconsider whether i ever want to consume anime/manga again

at the very least i am NOT the target demographic, despite the first 85% of the story fooling me

I thought the ending was cataclysmically terrible - until I read the expanded pages showing Paradis being exterminated. Then I just thought it was bad. The original ending shit all over the themes of struggle and sacrifice laid out in the story.

At least the extra pages show that Eren failed. He wasn't willing to sacrifice to change the world. He didn't break the chain of hatred. Eldia was exterminated because he half assed the Rumbling. Not a great ending, but better than "and then Eren's friends lived happily ever after, the End. Also Eren is a bird now."

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

No Isayama is an idiot cuck

Cuck doesnt mean what you think it means.

spikethedevil posted...

Cuck doesnt mean what you think it means.

if anyone alive has ever had sex with anyone who isn't you, you're a cuck

spikethedevil posted...

Cuck doesnt mean what you think it means.

Someone that jerks it to their wife banging someone else: Hajime Isayama

eren should not be shipped with mikasa
eren should not be shipped with historia
eren should not be shipped with annie (despite the clear sexual tension he felt after she beat him up in training)

eren should only be shipped with freedom

KhlavicLanguage posted...

sorry to double post but i just want to reiterate

the last stretch of this manga was so bad it made me reconsider whether i ever want to consume anime/manga again

at the very least i am NOT the target demographic, despite the first 85% of the story fooling me

You make it seem like it is worse than the Game of Thrones ending lol

Mikasa after I die please don't date anyone else

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

You make it seem like it is worse than the Game of Thrones ending lol

i honestly think it is. GoT was on a definite decline throughout its second half. AoT was a last-minute crumbling that felt much harsher. Keep in mind I followed both as they were released.

Didn't like that they went with the trope of "Humans are the real monsters".

It was so bad that some people would argue it retroactively made the whole series shit. Its not a stretch either. Remember the Smiling Titan? Remember how Eren's driving factor was to eliminate the Titans because of what that Titan did? Remember how even in S4, during the declaration of war, Eren asked Reiner why did his mother die? The answer was because Eren did that. He killed his mom.

You can tell the story rushed like hell to end at that magic 139 number of chapters. I forget it's significance though. And in the end, none of it mattered. Literally everything that happened up to that point meant nothing.

Some people hate it because of the shit story ending. Others hate it because they lost their shipping wars.

But I thought people loved the the entire foreshadowing of Eren always being evil?

GuerillaGorilla posted...

Others hate it because they lost their shipping wars.

again i want to ask how this story that is almost completely devoid of any romance (overt OR subtle) manages to have "shipping wars"

it says A LOT about the target demographic imo

KhlavicLanguage posted...

again i want to ask how this story that is almost completely devoid of any romance (overt OR subtle) manages to have "shipping wars"

it says A LOT about the target demographic imo

Fuck if I know. I hate the ending because it's shit, not because of ships.

You can't say it's devoid of romance though since Mikasa clearly has a thing for Eren since forever.

GuerillaGorilla posted...

You can't say it's devoid of romance though since Mikasa clearly has a thing for Eren since forever.

i said "almost"

it's never really made into a consequential aspect of the plot until basically the very end, and then in the worst way possible

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The only one of those that mattered to the story was Ymir's love for Historia. And I guess Falco and Gabi but the story had already started on the downward shipping slope that ends with Mikasa and a severed head.

Anyone got any other good anime recommendations? I need something to watch on the treadmill, I heard good things about Spy Family? Or should I watch Jojo? Or Hunter x Hunter?

ThePrinceFish posted...

The plot absolutely falls into the trash after the Rumbling starts. For a story that made a name for itself being so brutal, the fact that the main cast comes to fight a legion of intelligent ancient titans and comes away entirely unscathed is right out of a Disney Marvel movie.

Dude, I don't watch anime people sold me this show as if it were the second coming of Christ, so I decided to give it a shot. Right in the few early episodes, you see the main guy (a teenager, of course) get chewed and eaten alive by a Titan, his limbs severed and no possible chance of surviving. As it is typical of those weeb stuff, he then remembers his friends and the power of friendship turns him into a super Titan and then he saves the day. This is where I gave up. That sort of DBZ power ups (Deus Ex machina) are precisely why I can't take anime seriously.

I really wanted Eren & that princess to have a secret kid. .

Also wanted eren to have completed his goal. I wish his friends weren't so lame

KhlavicLanguage posted...

extremely controversial online, and almost impossible to discuss because of the immense number of fans (probably mostly teens) who only watch because they somehow "ship" in this almost completely romance-free story and thus thought the ending was good because the Cute Anime Boy confirmed he loved the Cute Anime Girl

Everywhere I've went hates the ending. Even r/onepunchman even though their own manga is heading in a bad direction.

ElGatoBravo posted...

As it is typical of those weeb stuff, he then remembers his friends and the power of friendship turns him into a super Titan and then he saves the day.

You and I must have watched very different versions of AoT then

So does this include the extended ending where they bomb the crap out of the island and the child goes to the tree?

teep_ posted...

You and I must have watched very different versions of AoT then

Right? I made it at least that far before I got tired of the grim dark of season 1 and quit. I'm fairly sure Eren got his deus ex machina because he was fucking pissed off, and also boiling alive. Ironically that makes it more like DBZ than what Bravo actually described.

Crazyman93 posted...

I'm fairly sure Eren got his deus ex machina because he was fucking pissed off, and also boiling alive.

Later seasons reveal that it was an innate power passed down by his father that he just activated for the first time. He learns to do it on command as well