The ending of the mega-hit Japanese manga and later anime adaptation “Attack on Titan” by author Hajime Isayama left many fans feeling unsatisfied. I however thought the ending was a realistic close to the series and perfect representation of the human condition.

If you aren’t yet familiar with plot I’d highly recommend watching the show or doing some more in-depth research. It’s practically impossible for me to simplify the plot since every little detail counts. I think its best to just jump straight into the explanation.

The very end of the final episode shows a time sequence where over thousands of years what’s left of humanity rebuilds civilization, destroyed itself again through war, and the story of Eren and the rumbling become a distant memory. Suddenly we see a small child enter a tree in the forest in the same manner as Ymir.

To many fans, the ending may have felt redundant, posing the question “what’s the point of anything if we never learn?”. For me on the other hand, I interpreted the ending as a reminder that humanity pushes forward. We’ve never found solutions to war and achieved peace, and when we look back at history so many patterns and warning signs blare in our faces yet we never learn. Though the cycle repeats itself in the end, we saw a beautiful sequence of how humanity rose again from the ashes of an extinction level threat. Rather than offering a solution or displaying a pessimistic view that nothing will ever change, Isayama leaves the ending realistically open ended. Humanity will keep pushing forward even if it feels like time is moving backwards.

I also felt that Erens complex character arc and sort-of redemption at the end was a brilliant choice. To simply vilify Eren in the end would be a waste of a really import question about human capability and monstrosity. Showing the complexities and emotions behind a man who did such an irredeemable and horrific thing holds a mirror up to mankind and forces us to accept that humans are indeed capable of being such “monsters”. It’s extremely important to humanize them in order to truly hold them accountable. it would be easy to write off Eren as a cruel villain and blame his “unchangeable” nature as his mortal flaw. But seeing his progression from the first episode to the last makes his being a villian much harder to swallow, since we know he chose to become one.

There is still SO MUCH left to unpack out of just this series. It’s a goldmine of questions about freedom, oppression, love, humanity, war and so so so much more. In the future I hope to do a multiple part series going in depth about all the hidden motifs of the show.