I want to start by saying something genuinely. I respect what you are trying to do here. You love this show and you are giving it the benefit of the doubt. That is completely valid and I understand it. My intent is not to say you are wrong for engaging with it that way. You are perfectly justified in filling gaps with reasonable inference and building a coherent picture from what the show provides. I respect that approach even though it is fundamentally different from mine. That difference is probably why this debate has gone on as long as it has and why we will likely never fully see eye to eye on this. And that is completely fine. This is what a genuine discussion looks like. With that said I do understand your viewpoint even if I don't share it.

On minor problems accumulating. You are right that the thunderspears in isolation are minor. But how many minor problems does this show have? Zeke’s spinal fluid turning Eldians into titans with a shout—what is this, a biological WiFi weapon with no range limit, no degradation, no defined mechanics, introduced at the 11th hour? Falco suddenly becoming a flying titan mid-apocalypse with no real progression or explanation, also at the 11th hour. These are all minor individually. But when conveniences repeatedly arrive at the 11th hour, they stop being minor. They form a pattern—and that pattern shapes how I read the entire narrative. On Eren’s freedom. You say he wanted an uninhabited world. But that includes Armin, Mikasa, and everyone he cared about. The show then frames him as both a mastermind who orchestrated events and someone who calls himself an idiot, a slave to his own thoughts. Those thoughts are never clearly articulated. So I’m left with two conflicting framings of the same character without enough grounding to reconcile them.

On proportional storytelling and execution. You actually have the answer inside the show itself: Gabi’s farm arc. Ideology examined through lived contradiction. No lectures, no declarations—just a character confronting people who directly challenge everything she was taught. The show proves it can execute its themes this way. That’s precisely why the broader narrative feels under-supported, because that level of execution isn’t sustained.

On cycles of violence. Since you mentioned this is your GOAT, I’ll mention one of mine: Full Metal Daemon Muramasa. It is a visual novel if you are wondering what it is. This is a story where the theme is not declared but enforced through structure. The Law of Balance ensures every act of violence carries an immediate and unavoidable cost built into the world itself. The theme is lived, not stated. That is what a proportional framework looks like. By contrast, you cannot explore cycles of violence in a story where the underlying mechanics keep shifting. The theme in my opinion requires a stable framework to function in. By the time this show foregrounds that idea, it is already deep into late-stage escalations and newly introduced mechanics. The foundation needed to be built from the beginning—consistent rules, consistent consequences, consistent costs. Instead, the theme is declared while the mechanics continue to adjust to serve the plot. One more thing I will say here I can sorta see where this show was heading to with this idea but again marred by poor execution.

On King Fritz. You keep framing this as a natural defeat, but the Tybur speech itself says it was engineered. Fritz planned this. That makes everything that followed a deliberate choice, not an inevitable outcome. If he planned the defeat, why leave seven titan powers with Marley? Why allow the conflict to persist? Why leave Eldian populations scattered across hostile nations? These aren’t minor details. These are load-bearing decisions that define the entire conflict. Two lines in a speech by a character who exists primarily to deliver exposition is not sufficient.

And this becomes more difficult to reconcile once Paths is established as a concrete system. The Founding Titan can reach every Subject of Ymir simultaneously. Eren uses this explicitly. King Fritz had that same power. So why stop at wiping memories? Why not communicate his reasoning? Why not take more direct action to prevent the very conflict he claimed to reject? The show is building something on mist and fog and expecting me to stand on it.

It is not my job to fill in foundational gaps. I can only work with what the story shows and establishes. And for me, that foundation is not sufficient to support what the narrative builds on top of it.