Attack on Titan NEW ENDING Fully Explained! Shingeki no Kyojin Extra Pages & Sequel Rumor Breakdown

what is up everybody it's annamac here for anime uproar and today i will be breaking down and explaining the ending of the attack on titan story including the new pages that have been released pages that add to the final chapter and expand the ending in multiple ways my brother goes then who also makes videos here on the anime uproar channel already did a full review of the final chapter back when it first came out but i also wanted to give my thoughts on the controversial attack on titan ending and these new pages which essentially create a new expanded ending present the perfect opportunity to do just that so in this video i will explain the ending of this iconic series i will address the various criticisms of the ending and i will give my own personal opinion on the ending and on the series as a whole now that we finally know how it ends if you enjoyed the attack on titan content here on the channel and you want us to keep it going just leave a like and comment it's a quick and easy way to support the channel and of course if you're new to the channel or maybe you watch our videos but you haven't subscribed yet do me a favor and make this the video that you subscribe and hit that notification bell to turn on all notifications a big thank you to all of our anime uproar patrons your support really makes long videos like this possible i'll talk more about patreon at the end of the video but first please be advised that we are of course covering the attack on titan ending so spoilers are incoming proceed with caution okay now let's dive into the ending itself including the expanded ending with the extra pages the ending started off with a lengthy and candid conversation between aaron and armin and this conversation is happening in the land of the paths it took place around the time that army and annie were talking on the deck of that ship back in chapter 131 aaron made armin forget about this conversation after it happened but armin remembers it again after mikasa kills aaron this conversation between the two of them was the source of a ton of controversy many fans felt that parts of it just weren't consistent with the characters of armin and aaron and some even felt that the conversation undid the development of aaron's character aaron's plan was to push armin and mikas away from him because he knew that he would have to play the part of the villain he knew that he would end up destroying 80 percent of humanity and he felt that he had to do this in order to save the aliens on parodies taking out marlei and all of ld's biggest enemies and sparing only the nations that were like the furthest away from elder would level the playing field quite literally so this would give the audience on parodies time to develop modern technology to defend themselves from future attacks however aaron couldn't bring himself to go all the way he didn't want to kill 100 of humanity beyond the walls so he wanted armin mikasa and the anti-aaron alliance to stop him that is why he didn't take away their titan powers and he wanted them to eventually take the credit for taking him down and for saving humanity or at least what's left of it that way the humans who were left alive would see the aldians who stopped aaron as heroes rather than enemies which would hopefully delay any future conflict between aldians and the rest of the world and here we already have the first big issue that many people had with this ending why would aaron go to the trouble of killing 80 of humanity outside the walls but not the remaining 20. if he's already willing to kill millions and millions of people then why wouldn't he just go all the way the answer is not 100 clear but it could simply be that aaron wanted humanity to survive in the long run if only the aldians on the island survived then one major natural disaster or even a civil war could lead to the destruction of all of humanity the other possibility is that aaron believed that paradise needed other humans in order to stay united if the people on paradise knew that somewhere across the ocean there were other nations who were potential enemies then they would unite behind the idea of defending themselves against that common enemy in the future and so they would be motivated to keep progressing as a society if the people on parodies knew that they were the only people left in the world they might get too comfortable so they might stop thinking about progress and eventually they could just start fighting amongst themselves until they wipe each other out in some brutal civil war but with that being said i definitely recognize that there is a jarring dichotomy within aaron's character in the final chapter and this bothered many people from this conversation with harmon it is clear that aaron at the very end of the story is two radically different beings at once on the one hand he is still a traumatized and vulnerable teenager with unstable emotions but on the other hand due to the founding titan power aaron is also a semi-omniscient being for whom the present the past and the future all exist at once this means that aaron is trying to juggle two radically different existences within himself and to be honest it is practically impossible for us as readers to understand how that would even feel maybe the closest we can get to understanding someone who exists in the past present and future at the same time is the concept of ujji or being time which was developed by 13th century zen master dogen but even that is not the same thing after the activation of the founding titan power within him aaron is both human and radically different from human at the same time and so in this final arc it is often impossible to tell where the eren we know ends and where the collective consciousness of the founder begins that brings us to some of the biggest issues that many fans had with the ending and that is aaron's character itself in the final chapter aaron implies that back when reiner bertolt and annie first attacked shiganchina it was actually aaron himself who compelled the smiling titan to walk past bertolt and towards his own mother aaron said he did this because he knew that it wasn't yet bertolt's time to die but critics of this moment couldn't understand why aaron would want his own mother to die and for everyone on the island to suffer if he had the power to change it what was the point of this entire battle against marley if aaron had the power to change at all from day one but didn't but here's the thing i don't think that aaron the character we know as aaron jaeger had the power to change it i think that he experienced this event as part of the founding titan's massive collective consciousness so for him it felt like it was actually him doing it and guiding the smiling titan but it wasn't really him it was the founder of which his consciousness was just one small part don't forget about carl fritz's famous valve pacifism because this phenomenon proved that the founder can fundamentally change the consciousness of its current holder people like yuri and frida reese were committed to end the vow of pacifism and protect the people of paradise before they inherited the founding titan's power but then as soon as they became one with the founder they completely changed their minds i think that something similar happened to aaron he wasn't bound by the vow of pacifism himself because he didn't have royal blood but his consciousness was fundamentally altered once it became one with the collective consciousness of the founder this means that aaron wasn't really free after all as much as he claimed to be pursuing freedom in the end he was still dependent on and perhaps even subordinate to the founder i'm not saying that he had no will of his own but this will was just one of many wills within the founder and in the end it seemed that emir fritz was the one who called the shots when we saw mikasa kill aaron in order to stop the rumbling despite the fact that aaron was the man that she loved emir stopped the rumbling and apparently removed the titan powers now i know that many fans don't like this implication that aaron was not really free they wanted him to achieve his lifelong goal of attaining true freedom for himself and for his friends but the question of are we free is not a simple one and it's hard to say how much of what we do is our own free will and how much of it depends on things like our upbringing our specific cultural and social context and even fate itself if fate is something that you believe in the other problem that many fans found with aaron's character was the fact that at one point in the final chapter aaron seems to revert to a childish state when armin asks him if he would be okay with mikasa moving on and finding someone else aaron says that no he can't stand the idea of her being with another man aaron also says that he doesn't want to die he just wants to be happy with mikasa and his friends but as much as he would love to do that he can't just hide away and pretend that most of the world isn't preparing to destroy the island of parodies so in the end aaron decided to initiate the rumbling not because he's some alpha mega chad but because he believed that it was the only way to save his friends and the woman he loves and this really pissed some people off so you're telling me aaron is cool with destroying most of the world and killing millions of people but he's upset because mikasa might end up with another guy i've heard so many people argue that this moment destroyed all of aaron's character progression and made him revert into that edgy overdramatic team that he was earlier in the story but i have to say that i disagree with this interpretation it might be hard to understand that one person can be both a nearly omniscient being and a vulnerable teenager at the same time but that is exactly what aaron is don't forget that at the end of the attack on titan story aaron is only 19 years old he's still just a teenager and on top of that he is a teenager who had an incredibly difficult and traumatic life combined that with the fact that his consciousness ended up melding with the incomprehensible collective consciousness of the founder and are we really expecting aaron to be an emotionally stable person are we really expecting him to suddenly forget all of his trauma and immaturity and become the greatest chad in all of anime that would have been far less faithful to his character than the reveal that back when he was having a private conversation with his best friend aaron had a moment of weakness in which he said that he wanted mikasa to just be with him and no one else aaron even asked armin not to tell mikasa about this because ultimately he did want her to move on and be happy he just wasn't thrilled about the idea of her being with another man and i mean who can blame him he's still just an emotionally immature teenager and if you've ever been a teenager yourself and you had a big crush on someone you probably went through many immature and melodramatic feelings and thoughts at that time because let's be real that's just how most teenagers are i don't think that this moment takes away from aaron's character progression at all in fact i think that it shows us that he is still human at least some part of him still is even after he became the founding titan now let's talk about mikasa and emir because the connection between them ended up being an extremely important aspect of the ending and another major point of criticism aaron reveals that the real reason why emir fritz was so loyal to the fritz royal family for thousands of years is because she actually loved king fritz even though he was a cruel and horrible human being and even though he was literally her abuser she loved him and the family that they had together so that is why she chose to sacrifice her own life to save him and why she continued to obey the fritz royal family even from beyond the grave at the same time emir's love had enslaved her and she wanted someone to free her from the world of the paths that someone who would eventually free her turned out to be mikasa because even though mikasa truly loved aaron she was willing to kill the love of her life for the sake of others for the greater good after she saw mikasa making this heartbreaking choice emir decided to follow in her footsteps and she chose freedom over her love for king fritz the extra pages revealed that emir had been peaking inside of mikasa's mind throughout her life which implies that emir's intrusions into mikasa's mind through the paths is what caused mikasa's headaches before this extra page was added the question of why mikasa had those headaches was still unanswered but now we finally seem to have an answer speaking to the vestige of emir after the death of aaron mikasa acknowledges that emir's love for king fritz must have felt like a never ending nightmare at the same time that relationship as tragic as it was produced emir's three daughters who became the ancestors of the modern eldians without them mikasa and everyone else on parodies probably never could have existed emir then briefly envisioned a different past a past in which she allowed king fritz to be assassinated and lived on with her three daughters this is definitely how things should have been and i wish that this had really happened but unfortunately emir sacrificed herself to save king fritz and then he went on to force her daughters to consume her remains and carry on the power of the titans throughout the generations as mikasa says goodbye forever to emir and emir's vestige evaporates the very next image that we see is of historia's daughter i don't know if this is supposed to be a hint that emir may have been reincarnated into historia's daughter or if it's just supposed to be symbolic but i could totally see his story on naming her daughter emir in honor of her fallen comrade from the 104th training corps now while i did appreciate the inclusion of these extra pages especially because not knowing why mikasa was getting those headaches was really bugging me i can understand why a lot of people had issues with amir's character and her motivations if i'm being honest i don't think that emir fritz is a well-written character her motivation for serving the fritz family is not unrealistic unfortunately in the real world there are people who develop feelings for their abusers and that is why abusive relationships can persist for years and even decades but the fact that emir's motivations aren't unrealistic doesn't mean that they constitute good writing i think that her character and backstory could have been developed a lot more thoroughly and her motivations for serving the fritz family could have been more interesting and more complex than just oh she loved king fritz when we compare emir and her character to so many other characters on attack on titan she just doesn't measure up and that is unfortunate because as the founder she could have been a lot more interesting this is just my opinion though i do understand where the criticism of her motivations is coming from and i tend to agree with it another criticism that i absolutely agree with is the claim that the ending was rushed the final chapter felt extremely rushed so much stuff was crammed into one single chapter and there wasn't nearly enough time for isaiah to properly expound on all of these events even with the extra pages chapter 139 still feels rushed and this is painfully evident during the conversation between armin and aaron many critics of the final chapter said that during his conversation with aaron arman acted in a way that is inconsistent with his character namely instead of arguing more aggressively about the rumbling and instead of becoming enraged when aaron refused to stop it armin just kind of accepts it and even thanks aaron for becoming a mass murderer for the sake of his friends armin also seems to get more upset at aaron over his treatment of mikasa than he does at his decision to murder millions of people i totally see where this criticism is coming from and i think that the extremely rushed dialogue between aaron and armin is the cause of the problem more time should have been spent on armin trying to come to terms with the reality of the rumbling and trying to accept the fact that even though the rumbling is horrifying it is the only way to save parodies from total annihilation i also think that more time should have been spent on explaining how the collective consciousness of the founding titan works and more emphasis should have been placed on the fact that aaron is now two beings at once a human and the collective consciousness of the founder for aaron who experiences the past present and future at the same time the rumbling was inevitable something that had to happen but for armin who is just human this is not the case armin cannot see the future like aaron so in his mind so many other alternative solutions could have been implemented solutions that don't kill off 80 of the world's population more focus should have been placed on this conflict between armin's perspective as a normal human being and aaron's perspective as a semi-omniscient collective consciousness after armin remembers his conversation with aaron he takes the credit for killing aaron in order to take that burden away from mikasa aaron had told armin that he can still journey beyond the walls and save humanity and armin ends up doing that as a sort of diplomat as the hero who killed the evil aaron armin tries to foster good relations between parodies and the rest of the world in the aftermath of the rumbling but that's where the next major criticism comes in knowing what we know now especially after those extra pages were added at the end what was the point of all of this when in the end war inevitably broke out again and paradise was still destroyed after the rumbling ends and aaron is killed titan powers apparently disappear and in the final chapter it is implied that this could be confirmed through blood testing in theory this means that the world doesn't need to be afraid of aldians anymore the big aldean villain was aaron and he was defeated by other aldians now these other aldeans are all just normal people they are no longer titans which means that the rest of the world doesn't need to be afraid of them at least theoretically however the aliens and parodies are not just counting on theories to keep them safe three years after aaron's death the jaegerists have created a modern and professional army that is ready to protect the island in case one of the surviving nations ever decided to attack at the same time the heroes who took down aaron became ambassadors for peace and they are trying to preserve the peace among the surviving nations through diplomacy so parodies is using both military deterrence and diplomatic relations in order to protect themselves and preserve the peace which is in essence what nations do in our own world they try to have good diplomatic relations with other countries but at the same time they also try to have the strongest military possible in order to protect themselves if diplomacy fails meanwhile mikasa is not one of the ambassadors and we see her just spending time at aaron's gravestone which is located beneath the tree on a hilltop she is wearing the red scarf of course and she talks about wanting to meet aaron again then as the scarf begins to slip off her neck a random seagull appears and puts the scarf back on before flying away looking at the bird mikasa says thank you for wrapping this scarf around me aaron and this is where the original chapter 139 ends before the extra pages are added naturally the bird thing created a lot of controversy is this bird supposed to be the literal reincarnation of aaron or is it supposed to be aaron somehow using the bird to reach out to mikasa from beyond the grave by using what's left of the paths or was this just a massive symbolic coincidence i was not a big fan of this scene because it is a bit too on the nose for my liking the scene seems to be implying that the bird is somehow aaron himself and without more context or an explanation of how reincarnation would even work in this world it just seems jarring so no i was not a big fan of the bird thing but now we need to talk about the new ending because this is where things really get spicy we quickly move multiple years into the future and we see an older mikasa with what is presumably her child and her husband visiting aaron's grave and placing roses on it mikasa's husband's face is not shown but from behind he looks a lot like jean and so people are assuming that it is in fact jean then even more time passes and we see that mikasa is an old woman now she appears to have had multiple children and grandchildren and it is important to know that the tree looks considerably bigger now than it did in the previous scene and also if we take a look at the tree's surroundings a sprawling city has been built all around it when we first saw this tree there is nothing but nature anywhere close to it the town was off in the distance but now the town has transformed into a city and expanded all the way up to the tree and beyond this tells us that parodies succeeded in modernizing and industrializing and so they must have caught up to the rest of the world in terms of industry and technology sometime after that we see that mikasa has died of old age and she was buried with the red scarf aaron gave her some people assumed that she was actually buried right next to aaron but that is not necessarily the case we don't see where exactly she was buried but it could have been anywhere also i saw a bunch of people complaining about how mikasa being buried with the scarf meant that she never got over aaron and so she never really loved her husband who is presumably jean and then i saw some of those people complaining that jon was a [ __ ] and all this other nonsense this is such a juvenile interpretation of events that it really makes me wonder how old people who make these comments are obviously an individual can love more than one person over the course of their life and just because mikasa still loved aaron doesn't mean that she didn't also love her husband in the real world there are many people who tragically lose their spouses and become widowed and then eventually remarry the fact that they remarry doesn't mean that they stopped loving their first spouse and the fact that they still love their first spouse doesn't mean that they can't also love their new spouse i didn't think that this even had to be said but apparently it does as time continues to pass the tree beneath which aaron was buried continues to get larger until his gravestone is completely hidden away inside a cavern beneath the massive tree we then get a glimpse of the distant future probably like 80 to 100 years after aaron's death a war using modern weapons technology is raging and this includes aircraft and anti-aircraft rockets the military technology we see here is equivalent to the tech that exists in our own modern world we see high-rise buildings being bombed into oblivion by jets and then we see a post-apocalyptic aftermath the booming civilization that had developed over the past 100 years now lies in ruins but aaron's tree continues to grow and now it is absolutely massive it is just as massive as that tree that emir fritz had stumbled upon 2 000 years ago this indicates that many more years must have passed since that devastating modern war took place a child with dark hair and a dog are seen walking through this post-apocalyptic world and the story ends as the child and the dog come upon aaron's gigantic tree based on appearance alone the child looks like he or she could be a direct descendant of mikasa and although this is not the same tree that emir came across when she became the founding titan isayama's intention here is to create a clear parallel between the two scenes more than 2 000 years after emir another child finds itself in front of a similar tree in a similarly war-torn world and that is the end of the story there were of course multiple criticisms of these final pages so let's start with the criticism that the entire struggle of the story was pointless because in the end paradise was destroyed anyway i do not agree with this criticism because the message of attack on titan was always clear war is inevitable it is an unfortunate part of human nature and it can never be completely avoided attack on titan does not buy into the progressive view of history which suggests that history is a steady progression towards a better future and which implies that world peace will one day be possible attack on titan ascribes to the cyclical view of history which suggests that history keeps repeating itself because no matter how much time passes human nature remains the same human nature itself drives people towards conflict so while methods of waging war may change and the circumstances surrounding conflict may change conflict itself remains a constant and yet conflict is not the only constant the other constant is that somehow someway humans will find a way to survive just as the ancient marlians survived the alden empire and just as the aldean minority survived marlene oppression and just as 20 of the world survived the rumbling some humans managed to survive that apocalyptic modern war that we witnessed in the final pages the fact that a child is alive after so many years means that after the war some people survived including the child's parents grandparents and so on all the way back to the war itself humans are resilient and they are likely developing a new civilization on the ashes of the old one as we speak now you might personally reject isayama's view of history you might think that history really is progressing towards a better tomorrow and towards world peace but this ending is absolutely consistent with the overarching message of attack on titan up to this point aaron didn't succeed in saving parodies for all of eternity he managed to save his friends he managed to prevent the impending destruction of paradise by the marlene allied armada and he gave the islanders time to develop and catch up to the rest of the world but after that human nature was bound to kick in once again it was only a matter of time and it seems that it took about 100 years before war erupted once again i actually liked this addition to the story and i felt that it meshed perfectly with the rest of attack on titan this story was never some idealistic shonen story where in the end the good guys win and world peace is achieved and any ending where the world is at peace forever was never going to happen some think that aaron destroying the entire world instead of sparing that last 20 would have changed things but i wouldn't be so sure even if the only people who survived were the islanders on parodies internal conflict is still a thing civil war is still a thing and so on even before the marlans attacked paradise they still had internal strife conflict and oppression within the walls themselves and even if aaron had wiped out everyone beyond the island some type of conflict was still likely to happen in fact for all we know that final apocalyptic war could have been some form of civil war between rival factions on parodies finally i want to talk about all the rumors about a potential sequel which stems from the fact that this child from the future stumbled upon the same type of tree as emir did 2 000 years earlier as the theory goes aaron's head which lies beneath that tree has become a new spine-like creature and once this child enters the cavern beneath the tree aaron's new centipede thingy will attach itself to the child just like that other one did to emir and titan powers will return to the world as this child becomes the next founding titan this is intriguing although i don't think that an actual sequel is likely that said i do think that isayama wanted us to think about this possibility and so he left the ultimate outcome of this final scene open for interpretation i mean the similarities between the two trees could just be symbolic but if they are then why did both emir's tree and aaron's tree grow to be so freaking big as compared to all the other trees around them is this just a special breed of tree or did it become like this because the spine-like creature itself is influencing the tree's development honestly this is a fascinating question and even though i don't believe that there will be a sequel i really like the open-ended nature of this final scene it is both disturbing and intriguing at the same time and it is highly thought provoking so i definitely approve so after covering all of that what do i really think of the ending i thought that it was okay at best the original ending was probably like a 6.5 out of 10 in my book and the additional pages actually bumped it up for me to like a 7. that said the overall attack on titan story is easily a 9.5 out of 10 for me and i think that it remains a masterpiece and one of the best fictional portrayals of the cruel reality of war if it had been up to me i would have done the ending differently it was definitely rushed some important questions were never answered like why was aaron able to manipulate mikasa's memories at all when previous founders could not affect the memories of the ackermann clan and in general i think that the final character arcs of people like armin and levi could have been handled a lot better but if you put me on a spot and asked me how exactly i would have ended the story in a better way i wouldn't know what to tell you that is the ugly truth about the attack on titan ending after over a decade of anticipation and after all of the hype surrounding aaron's transformation and the rumbling it was impossible for isaiah to come up with an ending that would satisfy everyone no matter what kind of ending it was millions of fans would likely hate it a happy ending would have been criticized as not fitting with the overall themes of attack on titan a very bleak ending would have left millions asking what was even the point of the entire story and so on in the end i did not love the ending but i didn't hate it and i don't think that it takes away from the greatness of the story itself my all-time favorite anime is guren lagan but i was not a fan of what happens with the main character at the very end of the story still the story itself was incredible and the same goes for attack on titan i have to say that i was very disappointed with some attack on titan fans and even some attack on titan content creators many of them just jumped on the ending hate train without taking the time to actually think the whole ending through many of them falsely claimed that the ending made the entire series bad and they even started criticizing isayama personally and saying that he was always a terrible writer this is absolutely ridiculous and while you have every right to dislike the ending attacking the author after he spent over a decade bringing this story to life for your entertainment is ridiculous isayama gave us an amazing story a heartbreaking portrayal of the cruel reality of war and in the end he faced a very difficult challenge when it came to ending this long-running series in a satisfying way you may feel that he failed with the ending and that's okay he's human and humans make mistakes but turning on the entire series and on the author personally because you didn't like the ending is just petty and wrong thank you isayama for the epic story that you gave us and thank you to all of you who watched and continue to watch our attack on titan videos here on the anime uproar youtube channel more attack on titan videos are coming soon especially once the final episodes of the anime arrive so definitely subscribe and turn on all notifications so you don't miss them you can also hit me up on twitter and instagram at anime uproar a big thank you to all of our anime outpour patrons for making videos like this one possible special thank you to alpha sigma and red haired raven these guys are absolute mad lads and disciples of lord twigo himself and i can't forget all of our the one tier patrons the ones who rise above all other clans including ingrata pate heffa algertol dr cortman the toasted chi ry carlo slickback emperor otaku spidey life chanel tungsten tarkis baked buddhist and cody hebert finally thank you also to our pro hero tier patrons including the one and only gilgamesh angel cruz anatoly kazatsky cricket xp very gucci alicia octor bonnie park cino kami and water 10 no ted isparky65 joanne garcia fat boy games metal mama corey mcgowan deadly saint soul ray slice and dice and pillow if you enjoy our videos and you feel that they provide value to you consider supporting us on patreon even a single dollar will give you access to our patron exclusive discord and your name will appear in our videos along with these amazing people as always thank you guys so much for watching and until next time see ya space cowboys [Music] you

Channel: AnimeUproar

Views: 458,819

Rating: 4.867733 out of 5

Keywords: the, end, final, chapter, of, attack, on, titan, explained, the end of attack on titan, final chapter, attack on titan, attack on titan final chapter, attack on titan ending, eren, mikasa, ackerman, levi, attack on titan final season, attack on titan finale, aot, snk, anime uproar, animeuproar, the final chapter of attack on titan, the end of titans, ymir, titan shifter, all titan shifters, every titan shifter, animation, every ackerman, all ackermans, strongest titan, new ending, new pages

Id: yEDcEvh2Los

Length: 33min 0sec (1980 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/eats-leaves-shoots]

Eren's head makes some really good fertilizer. Would buy again.

Took a quick look at the comments, I'm crying 😂.

[u/kobe_blank]

Juvenile interpretation of events that makes me wonder how old people that make these comments are

Nailed it. YB in shambles.

[u/BelizariuszS]

obviously there are some controversial headcannons/takes about Eren but Ive really appreciated that he said what he likes/dislikes without dickridding or hating the ending. Also 400 k video thats mostly possitive with mostly possitive response from watchers gives me hope for anime reception.

[u/PhunkOperator]

Reading some of the comments, why are people still saying that the pregnancy wasn't needed? I don't even like that subplot but it did have a purpose. Yet for some reason people maintain that the wine plan covered everything and the pregnancy must've been a romantic choice ...