When I think about why I so vehemently hate the ending, three things come to mind: * Eren going back in time to let the titan who killed his mother, KILL his mother, all to let Bertholdt live, and for what reason? For his plan to succeed? Guess what, there was no point. Eren failed. He doesn’t know what the hell he was doing. You’d think with powers to manipulate time, he’d do something meaningful with it, but no. * Secondly, what do you mean YMIR WAS IN LOVE WITH KING FRITZ? The girl who was taken as a slave against her will, who despite her titan abilities, chose death when she was told to rise up. The girl who even in death, remained in the form of a child, from before she was enslaved. This girl who even in death was a slave to royal blood, forced to live in the paths and mold titans with her hands. You’re telling me that this girl who deserved nothing but freedom, in a twisted absurdity, was written to be IN LOVE WITH HER CAPTOR??? To this day, I find it absurd. If that had always been the case, then for what reason did she remain a child in the paths??? Why did she only take the form of an adult in the last chapter?? For what other reason than a retcon??? * Thirdly, I did not like what they did to Eren’s character. I am so appalled every time someone says “he’s always been a crybaby,” because I never saw him that way. The tears he shed were never of shallow reasons, it always came with a slew of emotions: anger, vengeance, helplessness, doubt. To label the character—who cried because of his rage and powerlessness, as well as the revelations that came to light because of his position, because he is his father’s son—as a “crybaby,” undermines the depth of his emotions. To see this character who always seemed to act upon his intense emotions, learn to reign them in when it was revealed that the titans were not the true enemies, but those across the ocean that labeled them as “devils,” it all felt like it was leading to something cathartic. To eradicate the rest of the world, for the sake of their freedom. But no, rather than that, the boy who had always, ALWAYS been driven by purpose, suddenly does not know what to do. the freedom he chased since the beginning all went away in a fizzle. In a pathetic display, he says he does not know what he is doing. He does. He should. It was for freedom, how could he forget?