Attack on Titan's ending is actually GENIUS. Here's what everyone missed.

Summary

Key Points

• The central theme of Attack on Titan is not freedom, but the desperation of characters, likened to "caged dogs," who are presented with only two choices: fight or die. 1:33
• Eren's character is consistently portrayed as a violent "animal" who always chooses to fight, learning that violence is the only truth of the world and that to defeat monsters, one must become a monster. 6:24
• The ultimate irony of the story is that while fighting only leads to more fighting, the correct choice, as understood by wise characters like Erwin and Armin, is ultimately death as a form of release. 6:52
• Eren's rage evolves from targeting Titans to Marleans, and eventually to the world itself, as he realizes the world is the true enemy that took away his freedom. 11:27
• Eren, in his desperation, doesn't order Ymir but begs her to choose freedom, suggesting a reciprocal relationship where Ymir borrows Eren's will to finally act. 12:23
• Ymir, the true wielder of god-like power, is the central figure in the ending, having been enslaved for 2,000 years and lacking the will to act despite her immense power. 13:36
• With time being non-linear for Eren, his entire life's relentless pursuit of freedom and violence is recontextualized as Ymir harnessing his will across time to set herself free, making his will inseparable from hers. 16:55
• The core "lie" in the story is not freedom itself, but the idea that Eren's desire for it was solely his own, as Ymir used him as a weapon to fight for her own liberation. 18:46
• The ending's perceived tonal issues and Ymir's silence are explained as deliberate ironies or narrative choices, with Mikasa's act of letting go by killing Eren mirroring Ymir's ultimate release from her love for King Fritz. 21:26
• The video concludes that the world of Attack on Titan is an endless, meaningless cycle of violence and cruelty, but meaning can still be found in the small, happy moments before the inevitable end. 22:55