You think that the developments after the basement reveal were DOA in your opinion? Or that they should have done something different with the fallout of “humanity isn’t dead outside the walls”?
Honestly, the basement reveal was super interesting at first and the reveal of the titans being human was something foreshadowed, but it was nice to finally get the solidified truth. I'm personally of the belief that a few parts of the first Marley arc were decent, especially how Eren's breakdown with Ramsey made him human, something we wouldn't see again because as mentioned, all his character was basically flung out the window once his POV ended.
It's very Yeagerist of me to say, but honestly, the Alliance was one of the weakest points to the story namely because of how campy and "Marvel-like" it turned. That "To Save the World" scene gave me aids, as well as the pie scene. Plus, like all characters of attack on titan, none of them ever developed and I think the series as a whole suffered from trying to focus on all of them. The only one who really developed was Jean, but even then it was still just him growing into a leadership role, only to get replaced by Armin.
There was too much set up plot threads after the timeskip that never got addressed once the last few chapters rolled out. (Why did Grisha give Eren the founder, why did Historia keep showing up if not for plot relevancy, why was Mikasa getting those headaches that only happened when she questioned her bond with Eren, what exactly was the "Ackerbond" etc.) so as a concept, the developments were good, however Isayama apparently doesn't know basic writing skills or character development, so in the end that entire arc is just a big mess.
But, I think an interesting concept would have been to explain the "Church Of The Walls" more and dive into that. When I first heard Reiner and Bert speaking about their village, I thought that maybe they actually did come from a village beyond the sea of "Titan Supremist/worshippers." like a cult or such who believe the only true way to "reach a final stage in evolution" was if all of humanity became titans. It would play out in a similar sense, but without the WW2 themes because, let's be honest, those amounted to nothing in the end. Plus, making a cult the real enemy would have fit the "horror" aspect of AOT a little bit more instead of adding "War story" to AOT's genre.
But that's just my thought on that, I'm sure others have much
much better takes.
