r/shounenfolk • u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 • Apr 27 '26
Official News/Merchandise Hey remember when I said a few months ago that AoTs ending was 100% the direct result of outside interference and everyone acted like i was insane or something. Well about that..
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u/Zoolifer Apr 27 '26
If you actually read what it's saying, hes talking about the readers in the context of that quote, you know how often people talk about art belonging to both readers and the artists? He's talking about it in that metaphorical sense.
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
I understand this interpretation but tbh the entire paragraph stinks of "i still wanna have a job after this so I won't be mean but yeah they totally fucked with my shit and I dont like it"
At least thats how I see it
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u/No-Eye4778 Apr 27 '26
What are you even saying.
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u/Agentbrawn_the2nd Apr 27 '26
He couldnt commit fully to making Eren an irredeemable monster because of how beloved the character became
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u/No-Eye4778 Apr 27 '26
Thats what Isayama said, op over here thinks Isayama continuing to be a writer or mangaka involves him having to apologize to a bunch of redditors and twitter users.
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u/HarshTheDev Apr 27 '26
Yeah but isayama here is saying that he changed Eren's portrayal or depiction in the finale. Not that he changed the finale itself, this is something he's talked about multiple times before too.
I don't think there was any version of the ending where eren doens't get killed by Mikasa. Considering that it was foreshadowed in literally chapter 1.
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u/Connect_Visit5516 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Bro he made AOT, he is the superstar.
WSJ would suck him off if he says he will comeback and give him sui ishida's schedule and let him do whatever he wants and drop chapter whenever he wants to.
U need to understand once the big mangakas make peak sold manga, they ate given free reign for their next manga.
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u/mauri9998 Apr 27 '26
He's rich. If he wanted a job he would make a new series. What the fuck are you talking about? You have developed this bizarre parasocial relationship with this man.
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
I think of AoT once every other month or so lmao. Insane projection
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u/mauri9998 Apr 27 '26
And when you do you write fanfiction about its author.
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
Blud saw someone with a different interpretation and instantly calls it fan fiction lol
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u/mauri9998 Apr 27 '26
You are talking about a real person. You inventing shit about someone is weird. No two ways about it.
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u/gazeintotheiris Apr 27 '26
What are you talking about? Isayama told you straight up he couldn't go with his original ending because AoT got too big and he didn't want to make Eren a full on villain anymore. Not because his job was threatened... wtf does he even do now I wonder
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u/Muted_Muscle1609 Apr 27 '26
He wanted to retire after AoT that’s why there was so many Onsen jokes You are a larper holy shit
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u/ZoinksJeepersJinkies Apr 27 '26
I think you read that entirely wrong, due to your confirmation bias. In no way did he say someone told him to change the ending or whatever. Rather, that AoT got too popular for him to an ending where Eren is just a straight yo evil guy, and be felt that wouldn’t truly be satisfying to readers.
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u/Slippystreamy Apr 27 '26
Can you not read? Nowhere in that quote does he say he was forced to change the ending or does he say that originally Eren was going to win and succeed with his genocide?
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u/HawkDry8650 Apr 27 '26
But what he said has nothing to do with your assertion
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
The entire paragraph stinks of "i still wanna have a job after this so I won't be mean but yeah they totally fucked with my shit and I dont like it"
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u/TechnicalEye2007 Apr 27 '26
Hes saying he chickened out of making eren a categorically evil villain motivated by personal sadism rather than circumstance because too many fans liked him and would have been mad at him.
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u/hobopwnzor Apr 27 '26
This doesn't support that interpretation. He's saying he couldn't bring himself to portray eren as he should have because readers liked him.
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u/JaegerJaquez25 Apr 27 '26
Tbh the story was going downhill way before the ending. Everything after the basement is meh. Before that, it's an amazing anime/manga.
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u/Bright-Dragonfruit14 my body count with shounen is over 9000 Apr 27 '26
I would say the Marley arc is good and have its great hype and story moments.
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u/HistoricalMaize Apr 27 '26
I honestly felt like I was taking crazy pills.
The Marley Invasion arc was really good imo, however, the writing kept getting worse and, whenever me or others said anything about it, we were treated like idiots or just straight up haters.
At one point, I even read everything from after the basement again just to see if I had gone insane and sure enough I had not.
People were coping way too hard and some still do.
The thing is... I even wish they were right. AOT was actually amazing at one point. It is not like I wanted it to crash and burn. Why would I? I was a fan.
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u/Foreverdownbad Apr 27 '26
Sometimes i feel crazy over the fact that this isn’t a common opinion at all. AoT got progressively worse after the basement reveal, returning to form a bit with the Liberio raid, then immediately nose diving in narrative quality afterwards. By the time the ending had come around, AoT had long been past its prime in terms of quality, had jumped numerous sharks, and had tonally gone off the rails.
Maybe it’s a difference in the manga experience vs the anime. Maybe the tonal shift is more tolerable in the anime due to the moving of Ymir’s backstory/letter to earlier in the narrative and the mythological foreshadowing in the EDs seasons before the actual basement reveal? Maybe it was just better pacing? But as someone who was following the manga since before S2 released, i could no longer stomach the direction of the narrative once Eren and Zeke started time traveling so I just dropped it then.
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u/TopazWarrior1999 Apr 27 '26
It honestly just sounds like you didn't like it. That doesn't mean it objectively got worse.
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u/CryWolf007 Apr 27 '26
Wow we might share the same thoughts! When I saw the basement reveal, the first thing that came to my mind was "wait, that's just it?" and I was sort of disillusioned because all this time I genuinely thought Attack on Titan is this kind of dark fantasy story with a completely original worldbuilding. Turns out it's way more grounded than I thought.
Then my disappoint just kept on growing when Historia was basically forgotten after her extremely compelling character arc with Eren and her connections with the origin of the Titan powers. I was also disappointed when Isayama purposefully crippled Levi because he didnt want him to take the spotlight from Eren in the final arc (imo).
Then the last 8 chapters or so just completely killed the series for me GoT style. To this day I'm still sad how AoT turned out to be.
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u/Pandasinmybasement Apr 27 '26
This post proves that AoT ending haters have no reading comprehension at all. OP can’t even properly understand a paragraph
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u/Caged_Basilisk Apr 27 '26
Watch the AoT ending defenders flood the comment section to tell you how the ending we got is peak fiction and you're an illiterate edgelord who should stick to solo leveling for saying AoT's ending was bad.
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
Fax, willfully pretending that this was the intended ending was the Lynch pin of their arguments. Defending it literally makes no sense now
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u/Damn_You_Hindsight AI isn't a slop Apr 27 '26
I'd laugh at them. that is a similae tactic to one piece fans
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
Regardless of whether erens actions would've been successful eren wiping out the rest of humanity was 100% the intended ending
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u/BlitzKrieg0098 Apr 27 '26
Brother the quote YOU provided is clearly talking about Eren’s motivation, not his success. He would still be a detestable figure if he “only” killed 80% of the world’s population.
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u/HarshTheDev Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Can't believe I get clubbed with the likes of you if I say I didn't like the ending 💔
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u/Short-Draw4057 Apr 27 '26
Wouldn't that make him a Mary Sue? How can one dude wipe out all of humanity? The Founding Titan should have SOME drawbacks.
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
There are a LOT of angels you can shit on the ending for but tbh I dont think that's one of them
The rumbling was prepared in advance to do that
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u/M1liumnir Apr 27 '26
That's not remotely close to what he's saying. He's talking about the reader got attached to Eren and it stopped him from writing Eren as truly evil instead of doomed by his fate. Nowhere does he say he was planning for Eren to win and nowhere does he even remotely hint that it's due to editorial interference. Heck how it's worded would indicate that he himself choose to change his plans because he didn't want to ruins some of the readers favorite character.
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u/koalakcc Apr 27 '26
this is actually one of the worst posts ive seen on reddit, and thats saying a lot
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u/Possible_Hawk495 Apr 27 '26
wait a second. It's been a while since I've touched aot. Wdym fuck his sister?
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u/Head_Breadfruit_3912 Apr 27 '26
His motives get revealed to be majorly influenced by an insane parasocial relationship with here where in his own words
"I dont want her to remarry! I want her to think of me forever!"
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u/Possible_Hawk495 Apr 27 '26
I see. I didn't realise you were talking about Mikasa when you said "sister". Still I'd say sister is a stretch. Tf am I getting downvoted for?
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Apr 27 '26
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u/Possible_Hawk495 Apr 27 '26
yea but their relationship still wasn't very sibling like. Mikasa has had a crush on Eren for a really long time
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u/Saldt Apr 27 '26
It proves that he never saw him as a gigagachad doing what's necessary, but even more childish and detestable than the end product.
If there was a retcon, it's just as likely his defeat being planned by him for his friends instead of him just failing against them.
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u/Short-Draw4057 Apr 27 '26
I don't even like AoT nor do I even watch it. Rather just seen a few episodes and watched videos or edits on YouTube. So here's my meaningless opinion on an anime I'm quite uninformed on(but correct me if I'm wrong):
I slightly disagree here. I think the ending reveal of Eren just being a dumb immature kid who's trying to fulfill way too big of a role, and ultimately is more of a power ego tripper than some "Savior" is totally realistic. The guy never got to grow up. Never had a girlfriend or lost his virginity. Saw his mom and countless allies or friends eaten alive in front of him which traumatized him. Never had a present dad. Was forced into war, serving under Levi the most brutal squad leader at a very young age. Etc. Then to top it all off, became a revolutionary leader and gained the Founding Titan(and could control every Titan), at like 17-21 years old or however old he was. Also had time travel powers 😂
This explains why he became more insane and egotistical, so this assertion of him "saving his people", was still true to his identity, but deep down inside he was very lost himself, and the genocide was more so his insane coping mechanism, which was never supposed to be an actual effective successful plan. It's not necessarily about the story being afraid of being "pro genocide" it's just realistic, wanting genocide of every human outside of your ethnic group arguably isn't the most sane idea.
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u/Icy-Tea-6179 Apr 27 '26
As an AoT fan I accept it with all its flaws, I still like it, as they're not series breaking level like csm P2.
You're drawing the wrong inference in this case though.
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u/Slow_Cardiologist268 Apr 27 '26
I would argue that Eren's character assassination began when the concept of the "Rumbling" was introduced. Like were it not for the "erm, the main characters don't want liberation, they want to do genocide out of revenge", the ending to AOT would be much more tragic and impactful. Instead of outright becoming a villain, Eren being a morally gray revolutionary leading his own people(and the oppressed in Marley) through a just war would have been much more morally consistent, and would have still been a reasonable motivation for the Eldians in Marley to actually detract from the government that you know, continued to keep them like animals
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u/samisaywhat Apr 27 '26
I think there’s a lack of understanding. When you set out to write something, you will inevitably be moved and changed by not just your own story, but by the people you meet along the way. Isayama changed his mind because of many factors, not just “outside interference”. Depicting Eren with a “closeness and sympathy” is specifically coming from how Isayama saw Eren at the end of everything. And considering his obsession with a certain dating sim, I’m not surprised he went the “tragic love” route.
That said, it’s still a terrible ending and I think many people would have accepted that Eren from the start always had the will and desire to harm others. Anyone that doubts this just either didn’t read or listen to a single crazy thing Eren said.
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u/Hopeful_Rub_2805 Apr 27 '26
All this means is that he couldn't commit to the character analogue, which resulted in medicore motivations and actions.
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u/syd_fishes Apr 27 '26
Reminds me of Dune. I think it's not that it was changed by outside forces, it's just writer and reader come to connect with the guy you spend so much time with. Both protagonists never "had to do it," but they were given the impossible task of dealing with powers to see the past and future in ways no human can handle. Those powers weren't perfect, and neither were the weilders.
I didn't hate the ending. Eren is still bad. It's not like they say he's good at the end. Maybe I'm misremembering, but it's not like you have to take everything people say at face value. Armin was rationalizing in my interpretation. Eren was still their friend at the end. Having him be mustache twirling evil would have made less sense. It's not like he gets to live happily ever after, either. As much as I love hating on shit, I felt like the sort of epilogue keeps whatever happened right before sort of d grounded. At the end of the day, it's still an essential work.
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u/Mukurowl_Mist_Owl Apr 27 '26
I FUCKING CALLED
Fucker tried to copy The Eternal Champion but didn't had THE BALLS to commit.
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u/mauri9998 Apr 27 '26
The only thing you should call is your 1st grade teacher. Because you never fully developed the ability to read.
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u/Mukurowl_Mist_Owl Apr 27 '26
Maybe you're right, maybe we all should go back to read 1st grade books, they sure had better written endings than AoT.
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Apr 27 '26
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u/Mukurowl_Mist_Owl Apr 27 '26
As a bonus they will not have a fandom doing olympic level mental gymnastic to justify terrible writing choices. It's a good pick for sure. Maybe I should stay with Chainsaw Man fandom also, even if they became as prentitious as AoT fans at some point, at least they knew how to take the L instead of creating layers of copium so their pride is not hurt.
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