So... that was Attack on Titan...

[UniQueLyEviL]

Don't mind me. Just over here crying for the second day in a row.

That was so deeply sad...

And the fact that (while there have been hiatuses) I've been following this story for a decade now... that really adds force to the gut punches.

[davemerrill]

I wasn't sure if they were going to stick the landing, but I think they did! I hadn't been reading ahead in the manga so it's been a little tricky to keep from being spoiled, but I managed it.

The show managed to get past some of its more questionable creative choices (hey, I wrote silly, ponderous comics when I was 20, too) and deliver a series that challenged, horrified, thrilled, and delivered shocks on a regular basis.

It has been fascinating to see the segment of anime fandom insist that "nobody cares about this show any more" and then watch the finale absolutely destroy its streaming service - there are plenty of AOT fans out there, still.

There's an even smaller segment of anime fans who decided two seasons back that AOT was merely right-wing fascist propaganda and have been vocal about how awful it is ever since. I said all along that it's kind of silly to condemn a work that, after all, wasn't even finished yet, and seeing the show play out and be pretty consistent in messaging that war makes monsters of everyone, that the cycle of revenge and hate is never-ending, and that leaders, institutions, and systems are not to be trusted, well, it kind of settles those debates, I think.

[UniQueLyEviL]

I wasn't sure if they were going to stick the landing, but I think they did! I hadn't been reading ahead in the manga so it's been a little tricky to keep from being spoiled, but I managed it.

The show managed to get past some of its more questionable creative choices (hey, I wrote silly, ponderous comics when I was 20, too) and deliver a series that challenged, horrified, thrilled, and delivered shocks on a regular basis.

It has been fascinating to see the segment of anime fandom insist that "nobody cares about this show any more" and then watch the finale absolutely destroy its streaming service - there are plenty of AOT fans out there, still.

There's an even smaller segment of anime fans who decided two seasons back that AOT was merely right-wing fascist propaganda and have been vocal about how awful it is ever since. I said all along that it's kind of silly to condemn a work that, after all, wasn't even finished yet, and seeing the show play out and be pretty consistent in messaging that war makes monsters of everyone, that the cycle of revenge and hate is never-ending, and that leaders, institutions, and systems are not to be trusted, well, it kind of settles those debates, I think.

I recall hearing those murmurs about the right wing propaganda a while back, it really freaked me and actually caused me to step back from watching for a bit...but I guess with the way things unfolded in the story I could see how people would conclude that but... There was so much more going on. In my opinion this anime held up a huge mirror to humanity and it was painful to see and feel.

[davemerrill]

I recall hearing those murmurs about the right wing propaganda a while back, it really freaked me and actually caused me to step back from watching for a bit...but I guess with the way things unfolded in the story I could see how people would conclude that but... There was so much more going on. In my opinion this anime held up a huge mirror to humanity and it was painful to see and feel.

It was definitely painful; the series was full of people doing terrible things for what they believed were the right reasons, which I don't think ever works out well for anybody, either in the show or the real world. I'll say that some of the criticisms of the series I saw really drove home the reality that a lot of people aren't used to engaging with their fiction on a level beyond "good guys beat up bad guys, the end". This might be the first work they've experienced that features protagonists that do terrible things, the first time they're dealing with the fact that a work can include terrible events without being an endorsement of said terrible events or be interpreted as the author's desires as to how the world should be. Fiction, gang. It's fiction.