It’s hard to believe almost 10 years after Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan took the world by storm we are at the end.
The final episode of this iconic series is set to air later this week though as I noted, the final manga was released in June 2021. Several years before that–a few years before Season 2 was in production–Isayama famously shared with the world what the final panel would be:
Translated the person–who is later revealed to be Eren Yaeger–says “Now, you are free”.
This is a MAJOR SPOILER to anyone who hasn’t read the Manga but after Eren uses the horde of titans from Paradis Island to bring mankind to the verge of extinction, Mikasa decapitates Eren. Not before he confesses his love to her that is. Yes, really. Since Eren was the current Founding Titan, when he died all Eldians became normal humans. Those who could become Titans at will lost their powers as well.
Mind you, this is after it’s revealed Ymir, the original Founding Titan was in love with King Fritz centuries ago. He not only mistreated her but it’s implied all three of the daughters she had with him were conceived from rape. In the end, Ymir is brutally murdered in a fit of rage after King Fritz is overthrown. The name of Ymir’s daughters? Rose, Maria and Sina. If those names sound familiar, they’re also the names of the walls of the City of Shiganshina on Paradis Island.
After Ymir was killed, her daughters are in turn used for breeding. After a few centuries, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people–referred to as Eldians–exist across the world. All with the ability to transform into titans. They are largely feared and hated by the world for this reason. They’re largely treated the same way Jews were in 1930s Germany before the Holocaust (I assume Isayama didn’t want to go THAT far with the parallels).
All that said. This OP stands as a pop culture icon not just in Japan but globally:
Linked Horizon earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for this song alone. No question. As soon as you hear that “Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jaeger!” (German for “You are the food and we are the hunters!”) at the beginning, you know you’re in for something special. While unintended, I’ve heard this song and the first Season of AoT got some people to enlist in the military. Not just in Japan but around the world.
While Guren no Yamiya helps lay out the grim and largely futile human resistance against the Titans on Paradis Island, SiM’s The Rumbling helps set the stage for the apocalyptic destruction unleashed by Eren Yaeger.
I’m gonna back up a bit and recap some stuff for those who may not have watched Seasons 2 and 3 in particular. In Season 2, The Survey Corps learns with certainty they are not the last of humanity on the planet. In fact, there are millions if not billions of people beyond their shores. It turns out the ruling power in Shiganshina tightly controlled the spread of knowledge and information among the population. Anyone who got too close to the truth disappeared. This was to slow the development of technology as much as possible but more importantly, keep the people ignorant of the existance of people beyond their shores. The roving Titans on the island were an additional measure for population control. It wasn’t until about 100 years before the start of the series that the military created the ODM Gear, making it possible for Eldians to fight and kill Titans for the first time.
One of the biggest plot points of Season 1 was what secrets Eren’s father hid in the basement of their home. All we know in a flashback is Eren’s Dad takes him somewhere and injects him with something. He leaves Eren with the key to their basement and urges him to go there. Then he’s never seen or heard from again. It’s later revealed Grisha Yaeger is originally from the mainland. Born in an Eldian slum, as a child Grisha and his little sister sister wandered into a part of time they’re not allowed into. Grisha makes it back hom but his sister is never seen alive again. Apparently she was mauled to death by guard dogs. Most Eldians viewed their treatment at the hands of others as justified because of their ability to spontaneously turn into a Titan. Some like Grisha felt otherwise.
When he got older, Grisha got involved in an underground anti-Marley movement. He married an aristocrat and they had his first son, Zeke. Grisha made the mistake of telling Zeke about the movement he and his wife were involved in to Zeke who in turn alerted the authorities. They were taken away to be exiled…as Titans on Paradis Island. As an aside. In a bizarre irony, Grisha’s first wife Dina eats his second wife Carla. Eldians do not age while in Titan form on that note. Grisha himself is saved by an insider who reveals he is a mole and has chosen him to succeed him as the Attack Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin). Yes, that’s also the name of the series.
When Grisha goes to Shiganshina, he claims to have amnesia and the military is astonished to have encountered someone from beyond the city. Grisha is equally amazed to learn the military is fighting Titans. It’s shortly after his arrival that Grisha meets Carla. They marry, have Eren and later adopt Mikasa. During the Titan attack back in Season 1 Episode 1, Grisha pays the king a visit and urges him to use The Rumbling to wipe out their enemies on the mainland. When the king refuses, Grisha turns into a Titan and devours him, gaining the power of the Founding Titan. Since he is not of royal descent himself, he is not able to use the Founding Titan’s power. After later finding Eren, Grisha injects him with Titan spinal fluid. Eren immediately transforms and eats Grisha, gaining the Attack Titan and Founding Titan’s powers. We didn’t know it at the time but Eren’s second-ever on-screen transformation was actually that of the Founding Titan.
A few years before the series started, a team of Warriors led by Reiner (Armor Titan), Annie (Female Titan) and Bertoldt (Colossal Titan) infiltrated Paradis Island and Shiganshina with the express purpose of finding and stealing the Founding Titan’s power. By this point, The Marley Empire already controlled seven of the remaining Nine Titans. All except the Founding Titan held by the king of Paradis Island and the Attack Titan which was possessed by Grisha. The families that controlled the other Titans selected an Eldian to inherit the power every 13 years. Any Eldian could become a Titan but there were only two ways to pass on the power of The Nine: An injection of the host’s spinal fluid or someone in Titan form eating the host. For example, Armin inherited the Colossal Titan’s power when he ate Bertoldt after being turned into a Titan. Eren gained the War Hammer Titan’s power when he ate the host while in Titan form.
Annie was revealed to be the Female Titan in Season 1. Reiner and Bertoldt are revealed to be the Armored and Colossal Titans respectively in Season 3. Due to the Colossal Titan’s size and the MASSIVE explosion the transformation sets off, this is why we’ve only seen the transformation a few times compared to others. A cool fun fact about the Armored Titan is it’s modeled after UFC Hall of Famer and WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar.
All that said. It’s revealed at the end of Season 2 Krista Lenz, a minor character to that point is really the last surviving member of the royal family and has a legit claim to the throne. Conceived from an affair, her father arranged for her to live as a commoner provided she keep her true identity a secret. When the Survey Corps learns her true identity–Historia Reiss–they also realize the government was pulling out all the stops to keep the fact their country had no leader a secret for a while. After deposing the Usurpers, Historia is installed as Queen. Her first order is to direct the Survey Corps to recover the secrets in the Yaeger Family’s home. That sets the stage for the Survey Corps’ showdown with the Beast Titan (later revealed to be Zeke), Bertoldt and Reiner.
Commander Erwin sacrifices himself and most of the Survey Corps to create an opening for Levi–last name later revealed to be Ackerman–to take down the Beast Titan and cut out the human inside. Later, after the Survey Corps learns of Grisha’s past preparations are made to travel across the sea. Now that the people of Paradis Island are aware they are not the only people left in the world, they prepare to take the fight to the Marley Empire for their role in recent Titan incidents they’ve been dealing with. Historia decides to get pregnant primarily to protect herself from being used in a power struggle. The identity of the father of her child is never revealed but the prevailing fan theory is it’s likely Eren’s child.
It’s after learning about Marley and his father’s past that Eren’s personality noticably changes. It’s as if a switch in his mind was flipped. In reality, long-supressed memories from not just his past but his father’s and Ymir’s past awakened. When the Survey Corps infiltrates Marley to gather intelligence ahead of a planned aerial bombing, Eren poses as a wounded veteran with amnesia. By chance, he’s given the opportunity to see Reiner who’s been dealing with PTSD ever since he returned from Paradis Island. When the survey corps launches its suprise attack on multiple fronts, Eren takes on the War Hammer Titan and ultimately succeeds in taking its power while the others keep the Beast, Cart, Jaw and Armor Titans–all alligned with Marley–busy.
Marley launches a retaliatory offensive on Paradis Island hoping to take out Eren but he’s five steps ahead of not just Marley but the Survey Corps. During the flight back from Marley, Eren has a chat with his half-brother Zeke Yaeger. Everyone was worried Zeke would persuade Eren to join forces with him but what no one anticipated was Eren overpowering Zeke in a battle of wills, allowing him to fully use the Founding Titan’s power . Eren then sets off The Rumbling and departs to wipe out everyone not on Paradis Island.
In the two years since the final volume of the Manga dropped, Isayama took fan reception to the ending pretty hard to say the least. He actually held a press conference in early 2022 in which he apologized to the world for “disappointing the fans”. As a writer and aspiring author myself, the provoked me to anger. More so these days, “passionate fans” who think they know a fictional world as well as and in a growing number of better than the creator(s) get real toxic online with their language and rhetoric towards the creator and their product.
One thing ANY content creator online and otherwise will tell you is when someone tells you “this sucks” (or something similar), it’s hard NOT to take it personal. It’s hard not be feel some kind of way after a project you dedicated hundreds of hours, many sleepless nights and missing time with loved ones just to create a product for countless people you’ll never see or meet in person because you like what you do THAT much…only to see the vocal minority say they didn’t like it. All that time and hard work invested only for the loudest voices you hear being people who call it “garbage”, “lacking” or something similar.
This brings me back to Isayama’s “apology” over AoT’s ending. To me, that set a very dangeros precident for inexperienced, new and aspiring content creators in particular out there. Now, many new content creators are going to think twice about what they include in the finished product. I’m sure most will just have at least two versions of the finished product: The public/commercial version and their version. It’s disappointing to know because of toxic fanbases, content creators will now be feeling pressured to make content that caters to only what the vocal minority wants to see. I’ve noticed this on a few websites 20 years ago and now that this kind of “practice” has gone mainstream, certain legal and copyright questions will now need to be asked but that’s a topic for another time and a different blog.
All that said. In an interview earlier this year, Isayama revealed he was “influenced” by the Anime and now understands a lot of the criticism over the Manga’s anticlimatic ending. He said he plans to revise ending in a way that portrays Eren in a more positive light. Given the ending to the Anime has not yet aired as of this writing, that raises the very obvious question of weather or not the anime’s ending will be changed from the Manga’s. Fan speculation is anime fans will see a different ending from the manga so we’ll see. Isayama likely greenlit a different ending by now and assuming he did, it would explain why we had to wait so long for the ending and why it’s going to be 90 minutes long.
We’ll find out for sure when the series finale of Attack on Titan drops sometime this week!
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