I don’t think “zombie show but with Titans lmao” could’ve carried itself for long. Zombie fiction in general has the issue of the overarching conflict being way beyond what the protagonists are realistically capable of solving, because what are you gonna do, kill all the zombies? It’s inevitable that you’d go from “we’re fighting mindless titans” to “holy shit, somebody is controlling them behind the scenes”. That’s a natural and logical story progression.
One way the story could’ve gone was to make Paradis into titan North Korea. That the Titans roaming outside the walls were purposely planted there by the leadership both to keep invaders out and to keep their own citizens in, and that they were running their titan research program and experimenting on their own citizens to create more titan shifters to use as WMD’s (Of course this necessitates the lore to be changed. Instead of Ymir and some PATHS bullshit, Titans will just be a vaguely-scientifically-plausible bioweapon with no mystical connotations).
In this scenario, Marley would be completely justified in infiltrating and attacking Paradis (who poses a very real threat to the safety of the world, if their titan research is allowed to complete) and it would make sense for them to feel a bit conflicted once they realize that the people they’re killing are just innocent brainwashed civilians who have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes.
That would basically give you a double twist: the first being “oh shit there’s people outside the walls and they’re attacking us”, the second being “they’re actually the good guys... sorta”. Now, the goal would be to blow the titan conspiracy wide open and to overthrow the government of Paradis, while simultaneously trying to convince Marley not to nuke them into the ground. Now, peace between Marley and Paradis is actually a viable end goal, because the conflict isn’t based on something retarded like “lol muh 2000 year old racism” and is now a result of a tangible conflict that can be realistically resolved by the main characters.
You’d basically have 3 factions: the Paradis government (unambiguously antagonistic, wants to rule the world with Titans, experiments on their own people, sends the scout regiment to die pointless deaths in order to keep up the masquerade), the Marleyan government (well-intentioned extremists, have very good reasons to be afraid of Paradis, willing to nuke Paradis off the map even if it means killing innocents because they believe it will save the rest of the world) and the protagonists, which are the scouts allied with the Marleyan infiltrators, who know the “truth” about Paradis and need to spread it to the world to prevent said nuking. The story can now end with the Paradis government overthrown, the Marleyan government shown the error of their ways, and Eren a tragic hero who sacrificed himself to rid the world of Titans for good.
