Board Thread:Manga/@comment-34196931-20190708230504/@comment-35822279-20190721075412

@Cheng The Nerd. I feel similarly that even if the ending doesn't stick the landing I'm glad Isayama had the balls to evolve the story in such a complex manner. I would even go as far to say that the twist is straight up masterful in terms of how it interrogates the way that many felt during the beginning (including me) when we saw the titans as mindless monsters that needed be crushed (even moreso the Warriors Three) with the anime and manga really pumping up that feeling through pacing, music, tone, and visuals. Now though we see that the mindless titans are victims to be pitied and the Warriors aren't diabolical monsters but simply people. This is remarkably clever because of the way that it highlights how we dehumaninze our enemies and ultimately struggle in the face of realizing our enemies are not monsters which really pushed this series up a notch in my opinion. Not every evolution has been great (Ex, the vapourized stakes RTS onward where the Survey Corps feel weirdly unbeatable vs the early feeling of humanity being fragile and on the edge ) but the twist and the complexity it awoke in the series was definitely worth it. I still think that one of the series primary influences Watchmen is still the superior work with the novel being a unbeatable masterwork but in a sea of lame knockoffs that took all the wrong lessons from it (Ex. amp up the ultraviolence and sexual violence to achieve grit) or straight up copied the ending with no subtelty this is the closest I feel a fellow deconstructionist work has come to matching its depth (thematic & characters wise) and tight meaningful construction and I mean that as the highest praise possible (Side Note: Eva is usually considered Watchmen's Japanese counterpart but I feel AOT is far more relevant as Eva ultimately is a different beast). I guess now I'll elaborate on why I think the sociological ending is hard to achieve is that many of the other great endings are set on smaller conflicts (Ex. Breaking Bad) or have easier to identify ends (Ex. Gurren Lagann or FMA) while a sociological series (Ex. Watchmen and Game Of Thrones) has to solve a complex issue without belittling the audience or mishandling volatile thematic material (race, war, genocide etc.) that if done poorly reflects badly on the author. You can't have a totally optimistic ending where everyone lived happily ever after as these are problems that plague our reality and for all of recorded history have remained (Ex. you can't kill hatred like a heel villain in a classic JRPG). Their is a great GRRM quote highlighting this problem of easy resolutions and overtly optimistic endings by asking the question: "In LOTR we are told Aragorn was a good and wise king and ruled for a thousand years but what was Aragorn's tax policy?" as while LOTR is a different beast it is a cardinal sin commited by many sociological series to have a easy resolution where we assume everything worked out for the better (on my recent anime classics tour one particular fan favourite commited this sin tenfold). On the other hand the nihilistic ending sometimes just makes the writer look like a jackass who asserts something anybody can guess with little to no effort (MAN bad. Real deep analysis there) and is again better suited to horror (usually of the cosmic variety). The only good sociological endings I've seen usually end with a grand lie which is effectively an ambiguous ending where we never get a resolution (not a bad thing if done well) or a punt to be resolved latter. Alternatively the realist route is the other strong resolution where the societal problems are analyzed but not resolved (Fallout 1/2/NV and Planescape Torment are wonderful works in this regard) as you can't solve fundamental issues with humanity and reality. Ultimately AOT is not on the same wavelength as either of these endings with Eren/Zeke seeking to permantely end a near 2000 year old conflict and the series can only use FT magic to resolve Eldian conflicts (unless there is a way to bind all of humanity to the FT's will) which leaves a intensely messy conflict that shares a lot in common with conflicts found in places like the Middle East and Africa which are the kind that have endured for hundreds of years and have no end in sight so the question becomes how do you end a conflict like this permantely without oversimplifying it or failing to satisfy the audience and in that regard this ending is going to be one of the hardest this side of GOT.