Blue and White - Levi Fanfiction

Side Note - Chapter 139

April 9, 2021 is the day of the official release of the final chapter of the Attack on Titan manga. to respect this, there will not be a chapter released on that day. this is purely because the fanfiction is, of course, based on that story, and I don't want to release a chapter and distract from the ending of the source material.

I just read the final chapter typeset (not the official, of course, though I will reread it as soon as that one is out.)

updates will resume on monday, april 12. in place of a new chapter, I thought it might be nice to release this little note so we can have a place to chat about both the final chapter, and about AoT as a whole. and... it's a long note. sorry! I just had a lot to say!

there is a spoiler warning from here on out. if you haven't read it yet, I'd advise you back out now. I don't go into specifics in the note on everything that happened, but I can't say the same for the comments.

ok! so, let's chat about it a bit. I'll kinda go through my take on it, which absolutely is in no way meant to discredit other interpretations or say that mine is more valid. I just wanted to share it. feel free to agree, disagree, and put your own interpretations in the comments! <3

first off, a lot of people hate this ending. r/titanfolk absolutely DESPISES it. I... think I get it. I can absolutely understand where they're coming from. yams took Eren - and all of the development he went through just to get to this point - and surprised everyone with the way that he was a slave to fate, in a sense. everything Eren had done had been ultimately useless. I can see exactly why people think that and why it would be frustrating.

but I interpret it differently. I see it as, when Eren saw everything in Paths, he saw everything that he needed to do in order to achieve his goals. which, we all know, were ultimately to protect his friends and kill all the titans.

and even looking at his dream from the very beginning of the manga, I believe he saw what he would eventually have to do, which explains why he was crying. for a child to see what is essentially a nightmare of him pushing his own friends away, killing 80% of the world population, etc., it must have been a lot.

and I kind of also see a parallel almost to what happened in Infinity War/End Game (spoiler warning? ig) where Doc Strange saw each possible ending and acted to ensure that the one he desired (of course meaning that Thanos didn't win) happened, even if that meant sacrificing himself. if this was never what Eren wanted, or even if it was, it doesn't matter, because he had to.

that is what makes this ending beautifully tragic to me.

it brings in some incredible irony because Eren wanted true freedom, and yet never truly got it because he had to act in a certain way to obtain the ending that was best for who he loved. he was never free, he was a slave to fate. 

Mikasa was never a slave to her Ackerman genetics, she was free. free to do as she wanted, free to love, and free to protect those she needed to. with all that, she also had the strength to do so. she was never a slave. she was always free. the exact opposite of Eren.

Eren sacrificed his freedom to save those he loved. that is beautiful.

Eren knew what he wanted, but never the freedom to act on any of it. he got a real glimpse of it in paths, but he could never acquire it: not without sacrificing his friends, who he wanted to protect above all else. in order to kill the titans, and protect his friends, he needed to start the Rumbling. 

that's why he pushed his friends away, making them believe he was some tragic hero who had seen that the Rumbling was the only way to save them. he knew that they wouldn't accept it. they wouldn't accept global genocide. he knew that. which is why he kept the act up.