i started watching attack on titan in sutherland library of all places during high school. i think i was 15 or 16, and had all these outlandish theories after finishing the first season in a very short amount of time. while the reiner and bertholdt reveals were spoiled by me googling the armoured and colossal titans back then, i stuck to my guns and wanted to watch it as an anime fan only first. over the years there's been chapters that i've seen, such as zeke's final transformation of eldians, parts of the warhammer titan fight, and the second last chapter. without the wider context, i didn't have much understanding of what was going on, and had plenty of opportunities to go and seek out the manga if i wanted to. i managed to get to the finale only knowing the controversy surrounding the final chapter without any of the specifics. having now finished both the anime version and now the manga version, i think combined as one entity it's realistically the only ending that attack on titan could have had. there was always going to be a fixed point, and while it would be nice for that fixed point to be averted, which would have made the ending more run of the mill, but by not shying away from it, it makes attack on titan remain the formative and iconic story that it is. how much isayama knew from time of creation to the ending i don't know, nor do i really want or need to know.

dedicate your hearts.