This weekend brought the final, actual end of Attack on Titan, a series that began in 2013 and took a full decade to get through four seasons, with season 4 in particular taking place over the course of three years, broken into so many parts it became something of a meme.
But with the release of the final 90 minutes of content, Attack on Titan is officially at an end, albeit not a particularly happy ending for the grand fate of the world, even if the characters we’ve followed got off relatively easy, save one. Spoilers follow.
What’s interesting is just how intent fans are in analyzing not really the episode itself, but the final credits sequence that takes place by a particular tree, one where Mikasa buries Eren after his death brings about the end of the Titan decimation of 80% of the world’s population.
The sequences shows the gravestone and the tree living through not just decades but hundreds or even thousands of years, and fans have been pointing out some specific aspects about the sequence that stand out to them and indicate the long-term storyline after the events of the show.
There’s this scene, which seems to indicate that eventually, after mourning Eren, Mikasa does settle down with someone over time, something that Eren at least told her he hoped for. We don’t know who this is, though fans speculate it could be one of the other cast members. But indeed she still does mourn Eren after all this time.
Then, we have what appears to be a scene of Armin visiting both Eren and Mikasa’s graves, as she’s been buried beside him if you believe the second circle here is another tombstone. While we cannot confirm that’s who is buried there, I mean, who else would it be?
The second grave is also in the exact spot where we see Mikasa in an earlier scene.
Finally, we get to the literal last scene of the episode, and in turn, there series, where a young boy and his dog enter the enormous, twisted, sprawling Eren tree after the apparent destruction of most of the world.
This, of course, mirrors the original way that Ymir got her powers. Fleeing from the Eldians, Ymir entered the tree and contacted the being that imbued her with power, which led to her becoming the Founding Titan.
While there is no confirmation that will happen to this kid (or his dog? Would love a Founding Titan dog), it’s a clear echo, and Eren being buried there could indicate that perhaps some shred of his Titan powers remain and could be transferred.
This whole sequence drives home one of the main points of the series, that the cycle of violence is endless, as even the salvation of the world from the Titans did not end war and human conflict, as seen by the generational fast-forward by the tree that showed a number of wars as humanity evolved. Now, the cycle seems destined to repeat, and possibly even with the return of the Titans. But unless we get season 5, going past the source material, we’ll never know. And I don’t see that happening.
It was a solid ending, I thought, as someone who has followed this series for years. I’m far from a superfan, but I enjoyed it and I thought what they did with the tree and the final sequence was pretty brilliant, and I’ve enjoyed the analysis thereafter.
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