Now that this whole story is finally over, though it might prove a little different in the upcoming anime version, and now seeing as quite a lot of people are divided on the ending, I finally feel comfortable enough to confess that I don't love Attack on Titan. I know, shocking, right? A lot of people, even those who absolutely hated the ending, might claim that this is an absolute masterpiece of storytelling but that it has been sadly ruined by a terrible ending, so even with them I might not find much support. Then again I don't find much support even with myself because my relationship with this world Isayama created really is a battle of love and hate. Some aspects of it I really, really love and they've made me very intrigued over the years, intrigued enough to watch the anime all the way through twice and to read the manga cover to cover in just a few days, but on the other hand I've also found myself thoroughly disappointed by quite a lot of moments, twists and just the overall direction of this story... I'll soon get into it with as much detail as I can, but I think my claim here is that the real tragedy of Attack on Titan is that with such a strong basic premise I believe it could have been so much better.
Hell hath no fury like a giant ex-wife
I'll summarize the hate part of my argument but I'd be remiss if I didn't leave some room for the love part too... I distinctly remember an afternoon at the end of the summer of 2013 when I was hanging out with my cousins, just playing games and watching random anime, when I noticed a thumbnail picture of the smiling titan. I asked my cousin what it was about, he explained to me the basic premise of the show, as he had already seen a few episodes, and afterwards he played the very first one. And I was immediately hooked... I absolutely loved Eren's angst and his drive to explore the outside world even if humanity was so tiny and fragile compared to those creepy giants, I loved how he embodied a very heroic thirst for freedom and exploration, something that to me was reminiscent of the heroes in epic poetry, I loved how Eren, Armin and Mikasa made up a really neat trio, and most of all I loved how the show quickly skipped ahead and gave us a whole cast of characters to fight against the titans... I suppose the high school genre of anime is fairly popular, and with good reason, but if you add the little twist that instead of a normal high school you have a training academy that prepares you to find giant zombies, then you hit the big bucks. On that token it's not at all surprising to witness the success of AOT, and maybe I'm in the minority here but I would have gladly watched thirty episodes of these characters in boot camp, and another thirty of them going on small, strategic missions to take back titan-controlled territory. But instead the story skipped way ahead only to return through flashbacks whenever convenient...
Then I also loved how decidedly vulnerable our heroes were, at least physically because it was awesome to see the gadgets Isayama came up with for the fight scenes. It's a really cool blend in the sense that it's an anime-style impossible gadget, while at the same time being somewhat realistic. It gave these helpless characters a decent fighting chance, and it made combat incredibly interesting because, in a very simplistic way, the titans function as the typical zombie trope but with the terrifying difference of being giant. Therefore I think stealth-based missions and even proper campaigns and story arcs with a smaller scope would have been quite a bit better in the beginning. The story did give us some of that but it was soon overshadowed by the magic, that damn magic... I was really loving the gritty realism and I thought it was great how, in a world full of giant monsters, Isayama made his heroes very human and very real... but then Eren immediately becomes a titan and soon after everyone is suspecting other characters of being able to do the same. That was the story's first push towards more of a thing of clickbait with all its crazy twists and revelations. I for one always found that kinda boring because the impact of each subsequent revelation was soon deflated. It's very much like an addiction, you discover this major twist and it dramatically changes the story, but then another, then another, and then another until you think – just how many twists can a story take before it's all twisted around? I think AOT eventually did one too many, and seeing as it ended so disappointingly, it appears quite a lot of people have met their limit. I just met mine a little bit sooner...
So now I think I can get a bit more into where I think the story isn't as good, starting with,
5. It tries to be everything at the same time.
I alluded to this one briefly before but just what is AOT about? It begins as a post-apocalyptic and very creative twist on the zombie genre, then it becomes something akin to magical realism as Eren transforms, then it becomes an action-spy thriller with Annie's arc, then it becomes a murder-mystery political thriller with Rod Reiss, then it becomes a political thriller but with weird WWII themes, and then at the end of it all it blends those themes with an otherworldly magical origin of life, or at least of eldian life. We went from struggling to kill monsters so we could discover the outside world, all the way to our characters having access to a seemingly divine pathway where their souls gather... In some sense it could have been great, and I firmly believe the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion managed to be all things and to shift between them seamlessly. But is AOT like that? I'm inclined to believe it isn't, both due to issues I will further explain in the other points but also because at the end of the day it's a little difficult, well, for me it's wholly impossible, to care about all of these characters and stories equally. I for one never cared much about the political side of this story because, like with the latter episodes of Game of Thrones for example, I couldn't shake the feeling that none of it would matter in the end, so I could have gladly gotten the relevant information, such as Eren's dad obtaining the founding titan, and then I could have promptly disregarded the rest... And seeing how the whole thing ended I guess I would have been right to do so.
4. Character backstories and motivations are repetitive.
Two years before starting Berserk, the legendary Kentarō Miura wrote a prototype to his masterpiece. In it we find a whole lot of similar themes, and while not considered canon because it's different in many other aspects, the bare-bones story is there and it's very promising. However, there's one detail that stands out to me – in that prototype, Guts' reason for brutally hunting down apostles is because they killed his mother before his very eyes... Obviously that's a horrible experience in real life, but as far as fantasy storytelling goes it is a little cheap simply because it's a very easy idea to fall back on. What Miura ended up writing instead in the real Berserk is a million times better, and if you care to find out, do yourself a favor and go read it. Because even if the man himself may be gone, his story is forever.
However, we don't see the same with AOT... Eren's mom is eaten by the smiling titan in an incredibly brutal scene. Right at the beginning of the story we see our brave hero completely helpless as a bizarre beast of unknown origin twists his mother's neck and bites her in half. It is very shocking and I became immediately interested in finding out what happens next, in fact we all did. But then as we meet other characters what do we find out about them? Mikasa? Parents killed in front of her. Historia? Watched her mother being killed in front of her. Sasha? Saved a girl who was watching her mother being eaten in front of her. Erwin? The government had his father killed. Bertholdt? Wants to save his sick dad. Pieck? Wants to save her sick dad. Zeke? Betrays his real parents unto death... Yeah, I know we're in the middle of a war here but at a certain point it appears Isayama can't quite come up with all that many compelling stories without relying on this old familiar trope. And then weirdest of all, the emotional impact of Eren's mom being eaten is unceremoniously stolen by the ending, which in fact steals all agency of all characters...
3. Pacing is all over the place.
This one is so annoying... I suppose in some sense it's a recurring thing within manga and anime, but I almost feel it's especially prevalent within AOT... It has this weird idiosyncrasy with completely skipping ahead developing moments in order to reach the action, but then as soon as the action begins it immediately cuts, either by ending the chapter or episode, or by having the character fall into a deep proustian moment. And at least twice the same “reason” for that is used, the first being Mikasa remembering her past during the first major battle, with her feeling unsure of why those thoughts are resurfacing at a time like that, and then Sasha doing the exact same thing when rescuing that villager girl. Later on we also have Erwin's tragic past being revealed in the middle of a huge battle against the beast titan... The flashback technique is used and abused to the point where it completely detracts from the rhythm of the battles, which are only saved because of how amazing they are to watch.
Additionally, and tying in with the previous point, character development is heavily thwarted by this. We see characters being introduced left and right only to later on receive some sort of development through flashback, such as Levi's squad being given bonding moments with Eren literally during a dangerous mission just so that their inevitable demise feels more shocking, or how countless bonding moments of the ensemble cast in the training academy are skipped ahead and only shown through flashbacks when convenient for the moments of betrayal or death... To me it feels completely cheap, it feels like we're supposed to care about these relationships with some level of depth that wasn't given to us at the time of the twist. But I for one could barely keep track of the characters, let alone care for them all that much. I think in this aspect Isayama wanted to mimic the bloodthirst of someone like George R. R. Martin, but not only did the subversion not work but we could also totally see it coming. And even furthermore, don't you feel the impact of characters deaths is lessened due to constantly seeing them in flashbacks? Don't you feel Sasha's death, for example, would have been even more powerful had we never seen her again?
2. The scope of the story is wildly inconsistent.
The very beginning of this story is incredibly captivating because of how brutal and mysterious it is. Indeed, at its core it's an absolutely perfect blend of blood and brains. Everyone lives peacefully content inside the walls, except for our main character who has an unceasing appetite for freedom. He will simply stop at nothing to defeat the titans and leave his small world, small at least in comparison with whatever might be out there. The scope is thus initially reduced in the sense that we are following these very specific characters, within a very specific country, within a very specific world, because of course we know zero about the rest of it. And because humans are so fragile compared to the titans, going on this adventure will prove incredibly difficult. As I said before, Isayama was a total genius when he created the vertical maneuvering gear, thus giving his heroes a somewhat realistic, and really cool, way to defeat the titans... But then what happens? Almost immediately Eren is eaten by a titan only to return as a special kind of titan. That completely changes the scope of the story, now we're dealing with the idea that there's something strange to these titans because people can become them. And then we realize that all titans were once humans who were transformed by a warring country across the sea as a military weapon because only people from that specific lineage can become titans...
You see the shift, right? At first, humanity is reduced to this country, then we realize that the country is inside an island and that across the sea there's a massive empire, then we realize that this empire is fighting against many other empires, though we don't get to see any of them, and gradually we learn that our heroes are part of a very persecuted people but then, as it turns out, they are actually the only people in the whole wide world with the power of the titans... The story keeps changing its scope to the point where it's difficult to know where it stands. It's a bit like discovering Harry Potter is actually a really special fellow by the end of the sixth book... The eldians are both the lowest of the low, persecuted to the point where they had to escape the rest of the world, but they are also the most important people of all because, in a fairly realistic world, they are the only special ones. And then, as it turned out in the end, Eren, Armin and Mikasa, these three kids whose loving friendship brought them even closer in order to survive as orphans after a brutal tragedy, these seemingly normal kids that we were so intrigued to follow because of how strong they were, they are actually the three long-awaited messiahs that were apparently made to save the entire world, each in their own way, I suppose... And meanwhile the rest of the world had no bleeding clue, like mere pawns in this eldian game.
1. Characters being morally gray shouldn't be the ending – it should be the beginning.
Something I notice about a lot of fiction nowadays, AOT obviously included, is a greater appreciation for moral complexity and morally gray characters. Generally speaking I very much agree with that, and I aim to do something similar in my own writing. But then again, I also think it's something very easy to do wrong, though people don't often notice it... For example, when Zeke enters the scene he's absolutely sociopathic, causing one of the most brutal deaths in the story, and even mercilessly killing the beloved Erwin and his entire squad. So clearly Zeke is a bad man with a lot of blood on his hands, and thus fans wanted him to have his comeuppance. But then over the course of the story we are shown Zeke's past, we come to understand his motives, and with that in mind, we see him in a different light. So we conclude he's “morally gray” and we move on, hailing the complexity of the story.
But wait, not so fast... While it is true that in real life no one has done only good things, and no one has done only bad things, it is also the case that some actions are so bad that we can't all that easily forgive them. But AOT doesn't care much for that, it just reveals the character's past, explains the motivation, which is usually just bidding time for a greater good, or in the case of the younger titan shifters it's always saving their parents, and then we're supposed to accept that and move on. The story wants us to casually forget, for example, that Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt caused the deaths of thousands of people, Annie even killed some individual soldiers in very creative ways, or that Pieck was very instrumental in Zeke's assault, and of course, that our Eren became a mass murderer. But the story just always shifts focus, it gives you a new perspective and you're meant to accept it. I for one would rather morally gray characters than bland characters, but I also see it as a total cop-out to have to accept that after all they've been through they just become buddies because they all had their own reasons to do what they did... So if some giant blonde lady killed your loved ones by crushing them or spinning them like a yo-yo, would you forgive her because she wanted to save her dad? I doubt it.
So now, in trying to wrap all these points up, it appears Isayama expects us to do most of the work for him. He sets up the story, he gives his characters their motivation and then they act it out, sometimes kindly, other times not so much. Then at the end of it all, almost at the end of the world in fact, he decides to show how everyone has reasons to what they do and sort of expects us to decide which characters are good and which characters are bad... Obviously, there's always subjectivity to interpreting and enjoying art, but this one is a bit of a stretch. Actually, it should be the complete opposite. A much more interesting character arc for someone like Annie would have been to keep her around, trying to find a way for her to either continue in her “evil” ways, or instead to join the “good” guys, should they be able to forgive her. Likewise, a truly interesting story would have been to see how both the island eldians and the eldians from Marley would struggle to find common ground in the name of peace. Instead of that, Isayama just considers his work done and skips all that, leaving the human side of the story to our imagination...
And that's about it from me, and while I have one more thing to write about regarding this story, one much more loving and complimentary, I end this present essay with the sad thought that, of all the good things in Attack on Titan, I can't help but wonder how its ending, as bleak and absolute as it is, feels like it should have been only the beginning. I suppose such circularity could work for some stories but I can't see it working in this one... It's simply like it was swallowed up in its own angsty nihilism to the point where, at the long-awaited end, it was revealed to us that nothing ever mattered.
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