I'm expecting to get ratioed for this but someone has to be authentic here. I was a fan of this series since it came out and unfortunately I cannot give this a pass even though it was my favorite shonen anime by far. This one episode manages to undo all prior story themes, introduce new ones that were never built up, destroy character arcs and worst of all open up an absurd amount of blatant plot holes. You can't even rewatch the series because every sacrifice was in vain towards this conclusion. Here's a list of some of the narrative contradictions and absurdities introduced in this one episode:
The destruction of the Hallucigenia makes little sense. It made it seem like Since Eren died it didn't have a host therefore died. But this doesn't work since it survived in a tree without a host for years before Ymir made contact. Its evaporation into thin air is nothing short of a pothole especially since it was destroying everyone only one chapter ago. You could say It's implied Ymir willed its destruction but this only brings about more inconsistencies with the power of the founder (Whom we thought came from the worm).
The resurrection of past shifter's to help armin was completely left field and has no logical explanation except for fanservice.
Eren "becoming a dove" is fanservice and makes 0 sense. Symbolism and all it wasn't necessary for the final panel.
Mikasa's character arc seemingly invalidated, yes she had the will to kill Eren but was never able to move on from him. So what was the message here? Have her finally grow out and be a normal girl on her own, only for her never to be able to move on from her past love and grieve for the rest of her life even when she has a family? We made no progress.
Mikasa somehow teleported to Paradis, separating herself from the main cast and to the hill where it all started to bury Eren's head. Where was she even walking to in that panel? They have no mode of transportation to cross the sea. Have we just forgotten she was deemed a traitor by the yeagerists and aided in the slaughter of yeagerist personnel at the docks? I get the rest of the cast not coming to paradise till later but seriously I don't understand why Mikasa got a pass.
The destruction of historia's character. Why even have her lie about her pregnancy. Meet with Eren ("So what do you think about me having a child"), and not only never give us closure on that conversation, but have her look dead inside while pregnant, to make us think she didn't wan't to get pregnant to begin with. "You need to take care of your body", really Farmer?
The Farmer being the father made me sick, not because I wanted Eren to be the father but because there was no setup to this, and introduces a contradiction in Historia's character. Yeah, so this guy who threw rocks at me and bullied me as a child decided to work at the farm. Even though I barely know this guy and don't have any feelings for him atm, I'll be fine with him giving me a child. I live for myself anyways, but first, let me tell eren and see what he thinks. This pregnancy served little purpose besides to delay the inheritance of the beast titan, how can you as a writer have the most important FMC in your story, the QUEEN, get knocked up by a character who doesn't even have any relevant backstory or even a name?
Ymir being in love with king fritz, ok fine stockholme syndrome, but that introduces a plothole as to why she let herself die in episode From You 2000 Years Ago. It was implied she lost the will to live but why? If she loved him she would have gotten right back up. First Mikasa, now Ymir and Historia, this is a terrible message to female readers in regards to the romantic relationships in this show.
The rumbling stopping when zeke was killed was another plothole, since by this point ymir was seemingly not bound by that royal restriction. She was on Eren's side, so how did that even work?
Ymir fritz in general is swiss cheese, so she was waiting 2000 years for someone to help her break her Stockholm syndrome and it happened to be Mikasa because she killed Eren in front of her out of love. But in reality, Ymir has the power to peer into any eldians live's/memories via paths so she could've looked into anyone's lives to see them breaking free from there own Stockholm syndrome to empower herself to end it all. Surely some eldian out their health with her situation in 2000 years, right? There's now no reason for Eren or Mikasa or any of them to be involved now. She just needed to see someone else sever their emotional chains.
Eren making a post-partum reply all via paths introduces a new hole because it was established Ackermans can't have their minds altered with yet mikasa states she met with eren. Ackermans not being tamperable was what led to their persecution in S3P1 (What Uri was apologizing to Kenny for).
Eren guiding Dina to eat his mom is completely left wall garbage. I don't need to get into this one as other people have already broken down why this isn't a good plot point. If it ain't broke don't fix it, we would've been fine with her showing up because she just became an abnormal due to her royal blood and promise to Grisha in S3P2 (I'll always find you).
The fact that Eren attempted to pull a lelouch, but at the end of the day contradicted himself. ("I will keep moving forward until my enemies are destroyed"), but my actual plan is to move 80% forward and just hope that the remaining 20% do not create a weapon that could finish us all. As a result, his home to turn into a militarized fascist state on the brink of another war, and the cycle of hate continued. I'm not defending Lelouch, because even his ending wasn't necessary but Lelouch's ending was just in line with his character. In Eren's case, it was contradictory especially since he stated he wouldn't leave paradis up to fate and that unifying everyone was stupid in season 1.
So he had the hots for Mikasa this whole time, yet didn't do anything with her and wanted her to never move on after his death? What? If I knew I was going to die, and somebody liked me, I would tell them and love them, so that when my time came they at least could cherish the time we spent together and not have to grieve over a relationship that could've been.
Eren Kruger's if you want to save Mikasa an Armin see this through to the end. But he really didn't, he only finished 80% and left the world in the same cycle of hatred as before. Armin probably spent the rest of his life begging the world into not exterminating them. What was even the point?
Paradis gets destroyed proving my point about Eren's plan being absolute nonsense he made the situation worse yet had the audacity to call Zeke's plan "messed up". He let his friends live long lives but for everyone after his generation, he signed their Death note.
Ymir peering into Mikasa's head caused her headaches, which is a direct plothole I mentioned before these pages came out about how she could've just used anyone else to satisfy her Stockholm fetish. This is even dumber because she was established in episode from you 2000 years ago to not have the agency to freely use her powers yet she did this which means she could've ended the power of the titans using anyone else's situation. We don't need the main cast.
Not confirmed but Jean and Mikasa have a family, she should've been paired with a random if anyone at all because Jean doesn't deserve to be anyone's second choice. Mikasa still wears the scarf of her dead "lover" and shows her grandkids his grave like it's some kind of memorial, this is just cringe.
Titan powers are heavily implied to be still around, with the parallel to Ymir's tree in the final panel opening to the door for a sequel. This means eren didn't even get rid of the titans which was his lifelong goal. All in all, he accomplished nothing and made everyone's lives worse.
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