5 thoughts on “Attack on Titan is Kind of Trash”

  1. Oh wow, there are a lot of serious issues in this article… Where to even begin? How about the fact that it is never treated as some big revelation at the end of the series that Mikasa loves Eren? Like, I have no idea how you could come to that conclusion. It’s never even brought up as a supposedly shocking moment or anything like that.

    Also, Mikasa’s powers have absolutely nothing to do with her being asian, that is also blatantly false. Her Ackerman powers are purely from her father’s side of the family, who is an Eldian like all Ackermans are. asians in Attack on Titan are just like they are in real life, regular people with no outstanding abilities. Levi has Ackerman powers, and is not remotely asian. Kenny has Ackerman powers, and is not remotely asian. This also applies to your complaint that it’s stupid that asians on Paradis are hunted down because they cannot be memory wiped, this simply isn’t true. Ackermans are hunted down because they cannot be memory wiped, but the same does not go for asians. The only asians on Paradis are already partly Eldian, meaning they are just as susceptible to it as anyone else.

    It’s not implied at all that Mikasa “rejecting” Eren is what turned him into a genocidal maniac, though that misinterpretation could come from one of the many terrible mistranslations of chapter 139. The official translations don’t even have Eren MENTIONING the scene where Mikasa “rejects” him. It’s also never self internalised by Mikasa that her “rejection” of him is what did this either. Her character arc is her realising that the Eren she’s been seeing this whole time is a distorted version, and that the true Eren is far more unstable and damaged than she initially thought. Once again, her supposed “rejection” of Eren is never brought up. This shitty development you talk of doesn’t exist.

    Your remark that Armin does nothing during the final arc aside from blowing up Marley’s naval fleet is serious hyperbole. It is true that he does less than he did pre-timeskip, but that’s because his life being chosen over Erwin Smith doubled his already strong insecurities, causing him to be permanently scared to act at all times in case he fucks up. But he still plays an active role in the story.

    For example, he’s the one who prevents Connie from feeding Falco to his mother’s Titan, a decision which would lead to the Alliance getting saved by Falco, Annie, and Gabi, and a decision that prevents Connie from breaking bad. He’s also the one who breaks Zeke out of his nihilistic mindset in the end, an action which causes Zeke to save the Alliance and allows them to stop the Rumbling. Then of course there’s the fact that he blows Eren’s weird spine bone mountain thing to smithereens, a move which plays an integral role in his defeat. Hell, the entire plan to stop the Rumbling is Armin’s invention. Coming up with the final battle plans and playing two critical roles in said final battle that saves his entire team twice sounds pretty important.

    Eren gives the world all the excuses to declare war? Newsflash, most of the world had already DECLARED war. Eren’s actions were irrelevant. Had he attacked or not, many of the nations in the world would have allied against Paradis, ensuring its destruction. When Willy Tybur announces war, we see almost every single world leader and ambassador cheering and applauding. Eren didn’t start the war, he simply struck first in a war that had already started.

    You completely understand Eren’s character arc to the point that it’s actually funny. Like, you literally think it’s the opposite of what it actually is. You claim Eren’s entire character arc has been about putting his trust in his allies and following orders, when it’s clearly been about him deciding to trust HIMSELF to protect his friends by doing as much work as possible on his own.

    During the Female Titan arc, Eren wants to take the fight to the Female Titan immediately with the Elite Squad to aid him, but they tell him not to and that he should put all his trust in them. So that’s what Eren does, he puts his trust in them and follows orders. And they all die because of it. So Eren has an entire internal monologue about how he made the wrong decision by putting faith in them, and he should have followed his own instincts. And he’s right. The combined strength of him AND the Elite Squad would have been MORE than enough to defeat the Female Titan. We also have the trial scene right at the start of the Female Titan arc where Eren reveals that his true desires are to have every burden put on his own back and nobody else’s, to do the work himself and prevent other people from risking their lives.

    Or how about in Clash of Titans? During Eren’s fight with Reiner, he pulls back to take orders and advice from Hange before resuming the fight, a fight he was starting to win. He takes Hange’s advice, continues the fight, and… Gets captured by Reiner and Bertholdt. Well shit, Hange’s orders to take the fight close to the wall is exactly what resulted in Eren’s loss. Then we have the climax wherein the scouts are getting slaughtered and Eren watches a man he cares a whole lot about die. So what does Eren do? He takes matters into his own hands. He charges a Titan alone, without even having transformed, and throws a fucking punch at it. And what happens? This decision wins him the day and saves all the remaining scouts.

    Then we move on to Uprising. Eren is being hunted down by the military police, and he trusts in the Scouts to keep him safe. He trusts in their plan and… He gets captured. Then we get to the cave scene where all of Eren’s friends show up to help him, putting their lives at risk for him. They start forming a plan that means almost certain death, and what does Eren do? He finds his resolve, takes matters completely into his own hands, and without any orders, finds a decision that saves everyone AND nets him a new power.

    Then we have RTS, where Eren soundly and swiftly defeats Reiner singlehandedly. Good job, Eren. He follows the orders of Hange, which results in her and most of her men being seemingly blown up by the Colossal Titan. Then he moves to attack the Colossal Titan, and follows his fellow Scouts on how to take it down. This advice gets him kicked flying into Wall Maria and incapacitated for an extended period of time. This forces Armin to throw himself at the Colossal Titan in a sacrificial act to buy time. But then Eren takes matters into his own hands, comes up with his own plan, and it succeeds. He rips Bertholdt from the Colossal Titan and wins the day.

    You know, I’m noticing a trend. Every time Eren puts faith in the abilities of his own comrades, he gets captured, or dozens of his comrades are killed/injured. His friends lives are either ended or put at risk. But every time Eren follows his instincts rather than his orders, things work out significantly better.

    Eren’s character arc was never about him learning to have faith in his allies’ abilities and learning to follow orders, it was the opposite. His Titan powers allowed him to indulge in the worst aspects of himself, the belief that he had to make every decision himself and do everything alone. Before he got his Titan powers, he had the will and courage but not the strength. After he got his Titan powers, he had the strength but not the will and courage. It was only after developing these things (a little too much, actually) that he was able to save so many lives. You claim that Eren pre-timeskip was a passive character, but that was only early on. As the arcs passed, he slowly became MORE and MORE active until post-timeskip, when he blatantly disregards orders to make his own decisions and following his own path, no matter how much his friends tell him to stop.

    His change post-timeskip doesn’t feel jarring, it feels earned, because that’s what his entire character has been building towards.

    Your next complaint is also hilarious because you claim it’s stupid that those on Paradis trust Zeke. But… They don’t. It is made blatantly clear that they do not trust him. First they reject his plan. But Eren chooses to follow his plan anyway. So what they do is they isolate Zeke in a deserted forest (an environment where ODM gear is highly effective), SURROUNDED by elite scout soldiers with the best weaponry, and they take all of Zeke allies into custody and hold them at gunpoint. Again, how are they trusting him?

    You claim that they say they’re planning to feed him to a Titan, but don’t do it quickly enough. I would like to remind you that Zeke was only in Paradis for less than 24 hours. How are they supposed to find a Pure Titan and transport them ALL the way to this extremely remote forested area in less than 24 hours? The only two Pure Titans we know are still alive on Paradis are Connie’s mum and the Titan that was crawling all the way to Paradis at an extremely slow rate. Both of these Titans are, from our knowledge, hundreds and hundreds of miles from the forest that they isolated Zeke in.

    Ymir going with Bertholdt and Reiner is not that hard to understand. The whole point of her character is that she is an extremely selfless person who acts selfish. She can’t stay on Paradis as she is responsible for killing several scouts, and they would probably lock her up and never trust her. She shouldn’t take Historia with her because Marley is in MORE danger than Paradis with the Founding Titan, which she believes Eren has access to.

    The reason why she goes with Bertholdt and Reiner is because she wanted to save their lives. Bertholdt’s cry for help was shown to have a big effect on her, and she realised that they were just as helpless and terrified as she used to be. She knows that if they go back to Marley empty handed, they’ll be fed to a new batch of warriors for their failures, so she sacrifices herself to save them. It’s entirely in her character to do this, and the seeds were already sewn early in the final battle.

    Annie’s escape is also not random or rushed. It coincides with Eren unhardening everything on Paradis, which… Yeah, it makes complete sense that Eren doing this would release Annie. It wasn’t an “Oh shit, I need to release Annie.” moment. It was an “Okay, so now I’ve given an understandable reason for WHY Annie is released, I’m going to release her.” which is following cause and effect, it’s how writing works.

    Historia was not put on the throne to actually rule the nation of Paradis, that would be fucking stupid. She was a 15 year old girl with no experience on how to govern a nation, or anything really. Historia was put there as a figurehead so that the Coup seemed more justified to the general population, as a way of installing the rightful ruler. The new Paradis government hold the true power. Yes, this is messed up and manipulative, and this is literally pointed out in the story. Historia ruling as Queen was never supposed to have any buildup because she was never actually ruling.

    You claim that there are several discussions about turning Historia into a titan and then feeding Zeke to her, and asking why they don’t do it. Yet you also fail to mention that in these very scenes, the characters explicitly give reasons why they don’t want to do it. Feeding Zeke to Historia, along with putting her pregnant child and her own life at risk, would limit Historia’s lifespan significantly. Then she would be forced to have children who would also inherit her power, and this would continue on forever, with people constantly being forced to carry this power that puts a harsh limiter on how long they have to live. Pretty fucked up, don’t you think? Hange literally has an internal monologue about how fucked up this would be, and that it would be the VERY thing that the government they fought to overthrow were doing for 100 years.

    Again, Paradis DOESN’T trust Zeke, and cannot feed him to Historia when he arrives on Paradis. These “plot holes” you bring up are EXPLICITLY debunked by the very thing you’re criticising.

    You claim that Eren’s friends return home to peace in Paradis, but this is blatantly false. The final chapter ends with them sailing towards Paradis, yes, but several characters point out that Paradis might just kill them as soon as they get there. The ending leaves it AMBIGUOUS whether they return to Paradis alive or not, and there’s a possibility that Eren’s decision to kill billions to save just a dozen people might not even save those people.

    Eldians aren’t viewed as heroes who saved the world, only the Alliance is (which makes sense, since they actually DID save the world). Paradis is clearly shown to still be under threat. Even without the ending rewrite, Eren’s ending is implied to have fixed nothing at all.

    Your argument that the cycle should have been broken at the end of the original ending instead of the rewrite making it only perpetuate said cycle is actually hilarious, because your own suggestion is actually far more pro-genocide than the ending actually was. What would the message be, then? “The way to end the cycle of hatred is to genocide 80% of the earth for selfish reasons.” is that really a good message. The ending we have is far from perfect, but it doesn’t entertain the idea that 100% genocide would have fixed anything either. You’re suggesting that glorifying an 80% genocide would have prevented a 100% genocide from being glorified, which is just a moronic argument.

    I’m not going to touch very much on the whole “Is it Imperialist/antisemitic?” thing, mainly because I’m tired of hearing it. I will however make the point that the Scouts are ONLY glorified when fighting Titans (which makes sense, they’re mindless). As soon as they start fighting humans instead, the series immediately stops glorifying them and starts painting them in a much more morally grey light, and causes characters to start doubting their own decisions.

    In the end, a lot of your criticisms range from questionable to objectively wrong, with a couple of reasonable ones thrown in there. The title is also blatantly clickbait, with you calling it “Kinda trash” but then contradicting yourself by saying that it’s still pretty good overall and worth reading. Please make up your mind.

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  2. I can concede to some of your points (like Armin and Eren’s arc), but I think you misunderstood me on others (Mikasa), or assume what is said in the text is an ironclad defense (Historia, Zeke, etc). And regarding the ending, I think I made it pretty clear that my problem with the ending of Attack on Titan was the ENTIRE last third of the story. I don’t like where the story went as soon as Eren transforms into a titan and commits terrorist acts. I don’t care if he’s striking the first blow here or not, he’s just justifying an alliance in its infancy and guaranteeing more heat would come against them later. And don’t act like I’m justifying a genocide, I hated both endings and the cynical mindset that brought it about in the first place.

    And yeah, the title is kinda clickbaity because “____ Is Kinda Trash” is name of this series – it’s not for stuff that’s complete garbage or irredeemable, it’s for highly regarded seried that I checked out and, while I enjoyed parts of them, I feel like there are major issues which sours it all at a certain point.

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  3. Read this whole synopsis and I whole heartedly agree with everything you said.

    I felt Eren’s character was a passive protagonist until he goes bat shit and becomes a terrorist villan. Why? I would have much preferred a straightforward revenge plot where his objective to kill the Titans comes into conflict with some kind of inner humanity of all life deserves to live. Mikasa is really just a glorified body guard. She has no soul, no reason for existence other then to serve as a shield for Eren’s terrible decision making.

    I really wish they had kept Erwin alive, before his death I felt like there was a purpose in mind, a strategy, a way forward. After his death it felt like they were rudderless and if they had given Armin the reins to make the plays this would have been amazing, instead we got…. nothing?

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    1. Thank you, glad that someone agrees, haha. I think the series would have been fine without Erwin, but Armin really should have stepped up to make that dilemma and sacrifice have some purpose. The whole last third of the story just doesn’t jive with the first two thirds and there is so much potential that gets missed in favour of Erin suddenly becoming a genocidal maniac.

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  4. Those who don’t understand the ending never can, and never will. Nothing you say will make them understand. Which is pretty sad.

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