How did we get to this point?
Up until about chapter 137, where Armin talk-no-jutsued Ymir and Zeke, the story mostly made sense in my opinion. The world hating Eldians made sense because they spent about two thousand years under the oppressive Eldian empire, followed by 100 years of being assaulted by Marley with titans and having what they thought was a sword of Damocles hanging over them in the form of a Rumbling from Paradis's royal family. Likewise Eren's motivation to wipe out everyone else to make sure the rest of the world couldn't wipe them out first also makes some degree of sense, as abominable as his actions were.
Now though, Eren has way too much power through time travel, as it's implied he sent Dina Fritz's titan to eat his mother, so why couldn't he just use time travel to fix everything? It doesn't look like parallel timelines are impossible in this context either, since that may be what Mikasa saw in the previous chapter. I thought maybe Eren might not have a choice in what he is doing, since the future was set in stone, which would have been ironic, since he is supposed to be all about freedom. I'm not surprised Eren is responsible for his mother's death, but I am surprised about how it happened. I thought perhaps he influenced Kruger into making sure Dina was turned into a titan, to make sure he could come into contact with a royal titan and discover the coordinate; notice how Kruger prevented Grisha from telling the soldiers she was of the royal bloodline. Eren could also have manipulated Kruger into making sure Faye died and Grisha lived on thus fueling his becoming a restorationist, becoming the Attack Titan, and having Eren. I don't think I'm the only one who has considered this; I think the "Attack on Titan iceberg" mentions Eren killing his own mother. Between this and the bird thing, it really is as if Isayama saw fans talking about these things and decided to implement them in the dumbest ways he could think of. Not to mention Worm-kun just vanishing. How could Isayama possibly have forgotten to address that? It's hard to get over that thing, which was the source of titan powers, just spontaneously vanishing from the story.
Also, as it turns out, Attack on Titan is a tragic love story apparently. It was a story about how a girl who was in love with a cruel tyrant (for some reason), served him in death and caused the plot to happen until Mikasa killed her love, thereby showing her how to move on... I guess?
Eren's genocide doesn't make any sense. If he never was going to complete it, and was willing to accept an uncertain outcome, wouldn't it have made more sense to just destroy the military resources? He may have even been able to fake his own death, so he could have his own heroes too. For that matter, why couldn't he just use the story-breaking time powers and manipulate Willy Tybur to tell the truth and protect Paradis before the story even started? This one chapter may actually raise more questions than the rest of the series combined.
I'm not convinced that this was the ending that was always planned. Isayama clearly planned the Rumbling, and the Attack titan's foresight, since Eren saw glimpses of the future in the first chapter and said that he would destroy the world while he was fighting Annie, but I think the finale may have changed for one reason or another. Didn't he saw that panel now showing Grisha holding Eren was supposed to be the last panel? I'm not sure how well that would fit as the very last panel. Granted Eren apparently saw Mikasa saying, "See you later, Eren," so who knows. Maybe this was always his plan, or maybe he made certain parts fit his new ending.
This ending feels like wasted potential. Couldn't you see an ending where he explains to his surviving friends why he did whatever he would have chosen to do and how even with the Attack titan he couldn't see everything. He could then say that he regrets those who have died including his friends, but he will do the only thing he can do, "Keep moving forward." He then takes Ymir's child sees the sun rising over the horizon, the endless vista of freedom he had seen through the Attack Titan and whispers, "You're free."
Well maybe the anime will have a different ending, but I shouldn't get my hopes up. Maybe I should just think about it this way:
Maybe the real Attack on Titan,
was the friends we made along the way.
