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DISCLAIMER:- Spoilers ahead, tread carefully
The final episode of AoT aired about a week ago, and if you’re reading this, you should have watched it already. This review is going to be an emotional one where I pour out my feelings about the final episode, and also talk about what my general thoughts are about the whole series and a bit of AoT history.
First off, I want to say Alhamdulillah for being alive till now to witness this masterpiece. I mean, I could have been born in the Stone Age or among the dinosaurs. Not to add all the souls who started but never lived to see the end of this story. A moment of silence for all of them. And of course, a big THANK YOU must be said to the man who created this masterpiece, Hajime Isayama — he who created a story that will forever stay with us.
Before we dive in, I would like to state everything said here is purely my opinion. Mind you, I have seen YouTube videos about similar topics and also read on the topic so my opinion is going to be based on how everything was understood.
From what I’ve seen so far, the final episode did really well to the majority of viewers with a few “Jaegarists” stating that it was a terrible ending and they disliked it. For me, it was a really good ending, one that left me with a lot of mixed emotions (mostly one)…which is actually what drove this article. From the start of the episode where The Scouts and Marleyan Warriors (The Alliance) engage with the Attack titan — Beast titan duo (The Jaeger brothers), is everything but short of action and thrill. You could see how desperately they fought, as the last stand of “humanity”, they fought with everything they had.
The last chapter of the episode reveals Eren’s reasoning for going through with what he did. To put it simply, he did it for his friends and because he found no other way. With the power Eren had gained in the final episodes, the Attack Titan’s “time travel” ability, and the Founder’s Memory abilities, it was revealed that he literally “controlled” everything titan related up to the very end. It was all Eren. You remember when his mother got eaten by a titan, that was Eren. And all that power didn’t come without its downsides, he said his mind was a total mess, with the ability to both see and manipulate pieces of space-time. That makes sense, given how he uses this power to try and find a way to bring about “peace”. In the end, the best solution he found was The Rumbling.
To understand everything completely, let’s take a short trip through the AoT timeline. 2000 years ago, Ymir, a slave came into contact with a worm-like creature and became the first titan/titan-shifter. She goes back to her king/owner, King Fritz (for some weird reason, “Stockholm’s syndrome”?) and completely surrenders both herself and her newfound powers to him. King Fritz uses this power to crush his enemies and grow his empire. He also “gifts” Ymir with three daughters, Maria, Rose, and Sina. Thirteen years after Ymir got her powers, a soldier tries killing King Fritz but Ymir protects him and despite her titan abilities dies from the attack and appears in a place later known as The Paths. King Fritz seeing how the powers will be wasted, forces his three daughters to eat their mother (what a monster he was). Ymir notices three new paths (her daughters get her powers showing three paths) and although dead, is still enslaved by the king’s will (“Stockholm’s”? — still don’t get this! — She couldn’t bring herself to disobey her “beloved king”).
Nineteen centuries and a lot of conquering later, a war involving the use of titans has broken out with seemingly no end in sight, the then king Fritz (the 145th), planned with a family of Eldians known as the Tybur family to flee with some of the Eldians to Paradis Island and a ton of colossal titans. These colossal titans later formed the walls on Paradis Island. The king then threatened to release those thousands of colossal titans on the world if they ever decided to attack the island, though he never meant it. It was just something that would ensure he lived peacefully for the rest of his days. To prevent any form of revolt, he wiped any and all memories of the outside world from his subjects who escaped with him to the island. A 100 years pass (“and my brother and I discover the new avatar”) and outside the walls is now filled with titans (Eldians changed into titans and sent by Marley as punishment for some form of crime — mostly some kind of revolt against Marley).
During these 100 years, the Eldians left back on the mainland were subject to all forms of segregation and racism from Marleyans. They are treated as dirt, expendable soldiers and warriors used for titan warfare (as both pure titans and titan shifters). During this same period the
Eldians behind the walls are being bombarded by more and more titans and due to the memory wipe the king performed, all believe they’re the last of what’s left of mankind.
Now, I’m sure you’ve seen the previous episodes of the series already and are pretty much caught up to this point. The reason I recap all this is because I want to point out something very important that remained between Marley and Eldia even after 2000 years, and that’s HATE. In the second part of the third season, we find out that there are people outside the walls and beyond the bounds of the island — and this knowledge cost the scouts most of their troops — who hate us so much they want us gone from the earth. And no one felt this more than “Ereh” himself. That was the moment he started to gain the special abilities of the Attack Titan, although unstable, he was still able to see for himself the pain his father (and other Eldians) had gone through and still are. We also begin to notice “Ereh’s” change, from the bright active kid who wanted to kill all titans (he was angry but there was some sort of life to him then) to the teen who lost everything (we barely saw “Ereh” smile after that) but his hate for the rest of the world (the lands outside of Paradis) and his love (although not apparent at the moment) for his close friends (we see this in the first part of the final season ep 10, where he tells his friends that he didn’t want any of them to inherit the powers of his titan, and he hopes they live long lives — and Eren meant every last bit of it). We have to remember this.
For “Ereh” to spare his friends from the guilt and set it up so they live long peaceful lives like he hoped, he decided to take on the world alone. His plan was to come into contact with Zeke and kill everyone outside Paradis, I know right!!! such a noble plan. Mind you, that statement is meant to simplify the whole idea as much as possible (because in the real sense, “Ereh” had to pretend to go along with Zeke’s Euthanasation plan till they made contact where he would betray him, Why would Ereh rob his friends from reproducing?). This was no easy burden on him — from the last episode of the second part of the final season (huh! That was a mouthful) we see “Ereh” cut off his leg and stab a bullet in his eye — all this so his friends could live long, happy, peaceful lives. At that point, Ereh didn’t care much about himself anymore (not that he ever did, being the “suicidal maniac” he’s always been), he knew he was going to die however he planned it — he had to, although he did care about what his friends thought of him — all that tough guy act was just a show to push his friends away from him (I kinda get that, but he overdid it with Armin and Mikasa). Although “Ereh” wanted the best for his friends in the end he still didn’t have complete control over everything, one major thing being Floch — who was a nuisance through to the end (“Jaegarists” may think otherwise). I believe Eren should have let Floch in on the protecting his friends part, I mean something terrible could’ve happened to kill one or more of his friends — (Something did happen, that wasn’t Floch’s doing, Sasha’s death….that was truly an unexpected moment!). The ep where Armin got shot in the face is a perfect example, what if it was Connie, we all know he wouldn’t have survived that. Hey, but that’s just a thought — everything worked out…kinda.
In the final episode, after Mikasa severs “Ereh’s” head, “Ereh” tells us his reasoning for going through with the rumbling. He does this by visiting Armin in an isolated space and erasing his memories afterward. Simply put, he did this to create a group of “Helos” for the new world after the rumbling. What I mean by that is he did all that he did knowing his friends would come to stop him and in doing so with the Marleyan Warriors would be branded as heroes in the new world. He didn’t care about himself, he didn’t care about the outside world, he cared for a select group of people, his closest comrades. You can call this a selfish act or a generous one, it’s all up to you (but keep in mind that a genocide was commited). Eren also cries about not wanting to be forgotten so easily by Mikasa whom he loved so much. He also tells Armin that he doesn’t want to die, but counters that by saying he has to since none of the people he killed also wanted to die.
It is later revealed that he visited each of his former comrades and gave them some form of final words. He said to Annie in particular that they should “live long lives” to which Annie asked “What about you, worry about yourself you suicidal maniac”
Mikasa goes off with Ereh’s remains — which is just his head — to bury him under a certain tree. The tree he used to take naps under.
I had to watch the final chapter of the final episode a couple of times to digest everything and come to terms that AoT has finally come to an end. About a year ago when the second part was released and similarly at the time the first special episode aired a few months ago, I was so impatient in my wait for the final episode, and now that it’s all ended I don’t know exactly how to feel. There’s always some form of difficulty saying goodbye to a series you love so much. I started watching AoT in 2021, I can’t imagine how it must feel for those who’ve been following this for 10 years….the feeling must truly be different.
The end also doesn’t leave much room for any other emotion but sadness to be felt. The final episode starts off with this high tempo of the alliance fighting vehemently to stop Eren and the rumbling from completely destroying life on Earth, all the while having to face off against multiple past titan shifters. In the midst of all those titans, you could see the desperation on all their faces and the fact that they had no other option but to kill Eren in order to stop the rumbling….it took Mikasa a while but in the end, she realised what had to be done, and she did it. I wouldn’t say it was cool because in that moment the only emotion that swept through me was pure sadness. Like, see how Eren’s head just floated there supported by what looked like a piece of skeleton (a spine) and some tendons to his head. That look and setting just show how vulnerable he was at that moment, Could he have survived if his head wasn’t severed?. He’s looked better than that. He opens his eyes briefly to take one last look at Mikasa just as she passes her blade across his neck. She then picks up Ereh’s servered head and gently kisses him on the lip. I had tears in my eyes at this point (didn’t cry though), Like wow, just wow!!! This kind of an end will definitely leave a mark for ages to come.
Oh! And remember the gravestone scene, where Mikasa while crying says “I want to see you again”!!! That was just too much there, first off to see Mikasa crying is a rare site and the background music was literally screaming “Go ahead and let your emotions out”, like damn….that was too much.
Thank you for reading on this far, leave a comment below about how the final episode left you feeling after seeing it….and just your general thoughts about the entire thing. I would love to engage with you.
