Review of Attack on Titan: Final Season - The Final Chapters

Hope is the fuel of humanity. It’s what drives us to the future, and motivates us to persevere through hardship. It inspires our creativity, and influences our faith. But above all else, it’s hope that makes us human. And Isayama thinks hope is meaningless. The whole point of Attack on Titan from the start was hope. It was hope that made us fall in love with Eren’s tenacity, Armin’s wisdom, and Mikasa’s strength. It’s the glimpses of hope we saw in characters that made us invested in the people of Paradis as they fought for their very lives. And then the story slowly devolved into nihilism andhopelessness.

The problem with Attack on Titan’s ending is not simply that it poisons the well. It defiles and destroys the well, saying it’s utterly useless and serves not purpose. Why?

Isayama wants you to believe it’s because the well will always be broken or destroyed someday, so it’s only natural that it is destroyed sooner rather than later.

Everyone’s actions in the story serve no purpose. Why?

It is because aliens run the show in the end. Not one single character has the ability to change fate, or even their destiny. Isayama crafted the story in this way so it can inevitably devolve into this nihilistic drool that glorifies violence and tribalism. Instead of offering a profound commentary on human corruption and violence, it merely suggests that the genocide of innocents is justified so long as you do it in order to protect your friends. It preaches that the end justifies the means. I am genuinely curious what Isayama’s thoughts on Hitler and his ovens would be?

The bottom line is that this story wants you to believe in nothing but nihilism, where you are encouraged to protect your own tribe by any means necessary. It doesn’t challenge you to empathize and compromise with adversity. It encourages you to burn and destroy your enemies.

Hope, that concept that has driven human evolution and freedom for thousand of years?

It is ineffective and shallow in the end, according to Isayama.