Attack On Titan’s status as a legendary manga may be unquestionably set in stone, but that didn’t stop it from having a surprisingly divisive finale. Depending on who you’re asking, Chapter 139 “Toward The Tree On That Hill” is either a masterpiece or a dud.
The finale rubbed some the wrong way, whether it was because of the clumsy political implications, the unanswered questions, or unsatisfactory character arcs. While not the worst conclusion ever, Attack On Titan’s ending will surely inspire debates for years on end, but not for the expected reasons.
Warning: Colossal spoilers ahead.
10 Not All Of The Dead Got Closure
In the grand scheme of things, this is petty but it bears mentioning. During the Rumbling’s closing moments, some of the deceased Survey Corps members make a brief return to bid their friends farewell. This was bittersweet for both the Alliance and readers, as seeing the likes of Sasha and Levi’s entire squad one last time was touching.
Thing is, dead characters who arguably left a bigger impact were nowhere in sight. For example, where were Marco and Ymir? Their deaths nearly drove Jean and Historia respectively off the deep end, and their lack of closure was weird, to say the least. These absences are missed opportunities that only attract more attention over time.
9 Ymir Started The Rumbling Because Of Love
The tragedy of the founder Ymir is that in death, she’s still chained to King Fritz’s will. However, the final chapter reveals that in a really twisted way, Ymir continued to give Eldians the Titans’ powers as per the king’s demands because she loved him. Eren admits that he doesn’t quite get it, but this was Ymir’s way of showing affection for the man who tortured and exploited her.
A common interpretation is that Ymir was waiting for someone in a similar position as hers to break free of the cycle. This person was Mikasa who, despite her love for Eren, killed him. In doing so, Mikasa inspired Ymir to end the relationship, seen in how she erases the Titans’ powers. Either way, this being written as romantic was understandably questionable to many readers.
8 Undoing The Titans’ Shifting Undermined The Tragedy
In the penultimate chapter, the Founding Titan turns surrounding Eldians into Pure Titans as reinforcements. Among those shifted were Jean, Connie, Gabi, the Warrior Unit’s parents, and more. As depressing as it was, this was par for Attack On Titan’s course… which is why Eren undoing it was both anti-climactic and detrimental.
In-universe, this implies that Eren could’ve saved many Eldians (Connie’s village, those who drank Zeke’s wine, etc.), but chose not to. As a plot beat, Eren devalued the manga’s signature bleakness. Eren eradicating the Titans’ powers and fan-favorite characters regaining their humanity are good in a vacuum but together, they led to a jarringly saccharine ending.
7 Eren’s Masterplan Wasn’t Well Thought Out
To free Edlians from generational suffering, Eren kills 80% of life beyond Eldia’s borders. He does so in such a way that only the Alliance can stop him, presenting the “Demons of Eldia” as heroes and scaring the world away from Eldia. In brief, this is a very dumb plan.
Instead of leaving Eldia alone, the surviving nations turned it into a target. Eren thinking he could end eons-long wars and prejudice through a single act of intimidation is too naïve, since all he did was justify an already hostile world’s fear and misunderstanding of the Eldians. Basically, Eren’s plan didn’t just backfire; it made things worse.
6 Leaving Everything In Armin’s Hands Is Too Big A Gamble
As a contingency for the aforementioned issues, Eren defers the rest to Armin. Eren believes Armin – the smartest person he knows and his closest friend – can broker peace and a place in the global community for Eldia. To say that Armin has an uphill battle, especially in light of Eren using what amounts to a superweapon, is an understatement.
While it’s nice that Eren trusts and respects his childhood friend, leaving the future of an entire nation in one guy’s hands is too risky. As smart and verbose as he is, Armin is a soldier first – negotiations are more of a sideline for him. Realistically, Armin can’t talk down a post-Rumbling world from blowing up Eldia in anger.
5 Mass Murderers Were Forgiven Too Easily
After listening to Eren’s justifications, Armin thanks him for becoming a mass murderer for Eldia’s sake. This was meant to endear Eren to readers but after killing most of mankind, understanding is the last thing he deserves. Eren being a tragically sympathetic anti-hero is one thing, but his reincarnation as a bird being his final fate for global genocide is another.
Similarly, Annie and Reiner got a new lease on life after starting a chain of events that led to endless death and suffering. Like Eren, they went through a lot of mental anguish and they too were victims of a terribly unjust system they had no say in. But when compared to the equally culpable Bertholdt and Zeke, these three got a slap on the wrist.
4 Eren Didn’t Need A Last-Minute Redemption
At the final arc’s start, readers feared and lauded Eren’s villainous turn. Many loved how Eren devolved from an edgier variant of the hot-blooded shonen archetype to an unstoppably determined antagonist, which fans viewed as a gutsy deconstruction. Unfortunately, this praise didn’t last since the final chapter reveals that it was all a ruse.
Eren’s villainy was just a facade, and his atrocities (including killing his mother) were motived by good intentions. This isn’t inherently bad or wrong, but it’s unnecessary. Aside from deflating Eren’s menace, it robbed the finale of its pathos. Instead of tragically killing a friend who’s beyond redemption, Armin and Mikasa beheaded a misunderstood guy with an edgy act to maintain.
3 Eren’s Understanding Of Freedom Is Dumb
Since the beginning, Eren was driven by the pursuit of freedom. Whether it was freedom from the Titans’ terror or freedom from a hateful world, Eren did everything for its sake. The final chapter reveals that through the Paths, Eren planted the idea of “freedom” on himself the moment he was born. That said, it’s safe to say that Eren’s idea of freedom is incredibly basic.
In Eren’s words from Chapter 121: “If someone is willing to take my freedom, I won't hesitate to take theirs.” Basically, Eren is willing to commit global genocide for his personal freedom. If Eren were depicted as the final villain, this would make sense as an antagonistic motivation. But since he’s Eldia’s savior, his myopic ideology is instead heroic and just.
2 The Finale Canonizes A Disturbingly Militaristic Subtext
One of the most enduring criticisms of Attack On Titan was how it can be read as an endorsement of fascism. The defense claimed that the manga was a deconstruction of such politics. Case in point, Eldia’s militarism is a fragile, dead-ended last resort. However, this reasoning fell apart after the last chapter.
Fearing global retaliation, Eldia becomes a fascist state. A militaristic solution has almost always been the only answer in the manga, and the finale cemented this problematic constant. In other stories, a country turning militaristic means things have gone terribly wrong. Meanwhile, it’s a cross between self-defense and a necessary evil in Attack On Titan.
1 The Overall Message Is One Of Fatalism
Despite the characters' camaraderie, determination, and sacrifices, Attack On Titan's closing message is ironically pessimistic. Here, war and hatred are inevitable, and people should anticipate it at every turn. While these obviously exist in the real world, they’re things that no one can fix overnight. The same can’t be said for Eren, who can literally rewrite reality with the Founding Titan and Paths.
Instead of rearranging things to lead to the most peaceful outcome, Eren begrudgingly starts the Rumbling because that’s what fate said. For all his talk of freedom, Eren was too fatalistic and defeatist to imagine a world free of suffering, or a life not chained to causalities. Not helping is how the manga framed this as a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than an avoidable one.
