So, I wasn't originally planning on doing a part two, as I thought I'd already said everything I wanted to say regarding the ending. But after seeing a lot of the discussions and breakdowns surrounding the ending, I feel compelled to add a bit more to my initial two cents.
Firstly, I'd like to start by actually talking about some criticisms that I don't think are valid problems with the ending. I can fully understand why many people are upset by the ending, but I think it's important to hate it for the right reasons.
The biggest one I've seen crop up is that people seem to take major issue with the idea that Ymir loved King Fritz. Um, well, duh, I thought that was a given. Have you never heard of Stockholm syndrome? Have you never heard of people trapped in abusive relationships? And as an ex fundamentalist, I can tell you from experience that it's really easy to manipulate people into thinking that the most unloving behavior imaginable is actually the pinnacle of love. (I mean, what kind of loving parent threatens to burn their children for all of eternity?) So I don't really get why people think that Ymir loving King Fritz is such a big problem. As Eren pointed out, she's not a slave nor a God, she's a human being. She's also not a robot, which means that there would obviously have been an emotional component to her actions, so of course on some level she did love King Fritz, as unhealthy as that was. I don't get why that was such a big deal.
Granted, they could have made it more clear that Eren helped her realize how cruel the King really was to her, and that she no longer loved him after Eren set her free. And it would have been nice if they had clarified that her love of her children, and by extension her descendants, was also part of why she stayed in the paths for so long. But the issue here is that the manga just handled the subject rather clumsily in the last chapter. The fact that Ymir loved King Fritz is not, in and of itself, actually a problem, and people who act like it is are really missing the point.
There's also a lot of people who were heavily invested in having the ending where the rumbling fully succeeded, and Eren "won", so when the ending didn't look like it was going that way, they either dismissed the whole last arc as bad, or went into hardcore denial mode, claiming that Eren was going to pull out an uno reverse card at the last minute. And of course both groups lost their minds when 139 came out and it was confirmed that Eren did in fact lose. But while some of them did take issue with the genuine problems with the ending, others just seemed mad that the ending that they wanted didn't happen, which is a rather overly simplistic way of looking at things.
After Eren unleashed the rumbling and the alliance formed, it became clear that there were broadly speaking only two possible endings. Either Eren would win, or the Alliance would win. And in truth either ending could have worked as long as it was done well. So again, the fact that Eren lost and the alliance won is not, in and of itself, a problem. The problem is that it was done really badly.
And this is why I don't buy the narrative that the editor and/or publisher are to blame for the bad ending. I'll grant that it's possible that Isayama originally was planning to have Eren win, and the ending as a result would have been much darker, and that he received a lot of pressure to change it. However, considering a lot of the incredibly dark stuff he was allowed to get away with throughout the manga, I find it hard to believe that a dark ending was too much for the editors/publisher. And if Isayama actually did cave at the finish line, when he's one of the most successful and famous manga artists in the world, that makes him a pansy who wasn't willing to fight for the ending he wanted after more than a decade of work, which is not a good look.
But even if that is the case, and Isayama was forced to change it so that the alliance won instead of Eren, that still doesn't explain a lot of the nonsensical and downright batshit insane decisions made in the last three chapters. As my version of the ending proves, it's possible to have a scenario where the alliance wins and the story still remains coherent, so the garbage quality of the last three chapters has to be at least partially if not mostly Isayama's fault. And the numerous fan edits that changed the dialogue in Eren and Armin's last conversation to be less dumb show that it really shouldn't have been that hard to get an ending that was at least decent.
And a lot of those fan edits really drive home just how terrible that last conversation between Eren and Armin is. I already went over my biggest problem with it in part one, but there are many other issues as well. But even thinking about diving into that septic tank of a scene just makes me depressed, so I'll just touch on one aspect of it I didn't like.
When it comes to the ErenXMikasa ship, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it, but I really didn't care for how it was handled in the last chapter, especially after the dream sequence in 138 that was the only good part of that mess of a chapter. It was always clear that Mikasa loved Eren romantically, and while Eren obviously loved Mikasa, it was never entirely clear if his love for her was romantic in nature or not. Well, now it's confirmed that it was romantic in nature, but having him blurt out that he doesn't want Mikasa to be with anyone else and that he doesn't want her to get over his death for at least ten years was not the best way to go about it. It was incredibly clumsy and awkward, and it makes Eren seem like a selfish and downright childish dickhead. So again, the fact that ErenXMikasa was confirmed is not in and of itself a problem, the issue is that it was done really badly.
One last thing to consider, can the anime fix this? It's possible, but I doubt it. If the last few chapters had gotten the same reception as, say, Mass Effect 3, where over 90% of the audience absolutely hated the ending and actively wanted it changed, then I could maybe see them being compelled to fix the ending for the anime. But the overall reception for AOT's ending has been mixed rather than overwhelmingly negative, so I doubt any major changes will be made when they adapt the rest of the manga. They could make some minor changes, and they could flesh things out to make a bit more sense, but at the end of the day the anime has been and likely will continue to be a very loyal adaptation. So while the anime ending might be better than the manga ending, it still won't be good.
And that's all I got. Thanks for reading, and have a good night.