So, the final episode of Attack on Titan has aired. So many people were convinced that there would be an anime original ending, that this was all part of some grand secret plan, that somehow everything would be fixed. Well, the results are in, and all I can say is this.
I fucking called it.
There was no plan, no grand design, Isayama just completely dropped the ball with the final volume. The absolute most that we could have expected from the anime would be for the ending to be mostly the same, just with the rough edges sanded off, and the anime couldn't even manage that.
Every cringey, confusing, rage inducingly stupid moment that was in the manga was preserved in the anime. Everything from the dead shifters coming back with little warning or explanation, to Mikasa kissing Eren's disembodied head, to Eren whining about Mikasa finding someone else, to Reiner sniffing the letter, to Paradis being destroyed in a fucking montage with no context, to that entire final conversation between Eren and Armin being a dumpster fire of nonsensical bullshit that raises far more questions then it answers, and actively undermines the narrative by making the entire thing feel pointless.
I did have a few issues with the animation and action scenes, but honestly those petty nitpicks pale into insignificance when compared with the garbage writing, all of which was solely Isayama's fault.
Oh sure, they added a couple more details to a few of the scenes, like Armin talking to Bertolt, well fucking done. Sorry, but if someone totals my car and then hands me a box of chocolates, that doesn't change the fact that they fucking totaled my car. If the writing is garbage, you have to actually go in and fix things, you can't just add in a few entirely superfluous details like a bandaid and think that somehow fixes anything.
Watching the final episode was a deeply unpleasant experience, because I'd forgotten just how badly the story unraveled toward the end. It started off okayish. I was disappointed that they held true to the stupidly huge Titan army, but I already knew they would from the trailers, so I wasn't surprised, and I'll admit that seeing all the Titans from times past was a cool idea, so it would have been forgivable. But as soon as they got to material from chapter 137 it quickly became physically painful to keep watching, and I had to actively force myself to not look away or turn it off.
I'm honestly baffled at just how little they changed from the manga. I was under no illusion that they would make any big changes, but I thought that they would at least soften or remove some of the more questionable and embarrassing moments. But nope, the anime audience will get to suffer just as much as the manga audience did with how much of a hot pile of garbage the ending turned out to be. I kept my expectations low and realistic, and I was somehow still disappointed. But that's been the story of my fucking life for the past year, so I guess I really shouldn't be all that surprised.
Well, I already listed off everything I thought was wrong with the manga ending, and since the anime remained a mostly faithful adaptation to the end, those same criticisms can also be applied to the anime ending. As I said with the manga ending, if you liked the ending, that's fine, you're allowed to enjoy things. But don't try to argue that it's good, because it's fucking not. I like X men 3, but I'm not going to argue that it's a good movie, because it's fucking not. While it's got some good ideas and good moments, it's an unfocused mess that has an unsatisfying ending that amounts to nothing, retroactively making the previous films feel pointless. All of which are points that also apply to the ending to Attack on Titan.
Anyways, I released a revamped version of how I think AOT should have ended, this time as its own standalone story, so if you were also unsatisfied with how AOT ended I would recommend giving that a read.