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SPOILERS below...

Gonna step away from the bandwagon effect going around this fandom and write something I felt. I'll get straight to the point. I'll get to the good, the bad, and the feared.

GOOD:

1. Hanje's death was really well done. She wasn't a character I liked very much because of her flawed leadership (her whole 'we'll kill Eren and then think about Paradis mentality), but the scene did more than enough justice to the manga panels.
2. The music....maaaan those were so good. SIM as usual didn't disappoint and the OSTs, the one played during the Alliance entrance and Hanje charging at the colossal titans, and ... even the reused OST during the Beast Titan's appearance was really well done
3. Voice Acting....Yuki Kaji doesn't disappoint as usual.
4. Writing of Eren. It isn't just the writing, but the way Isayama managed to take a one dimensional angry teenager and transform him into a complex character is really great. Does this mean he's the greatest character every created? Hell no! But I can admit he is better than the protagonsit we had during the first 3 seasons.

BAD:

1. AruAnnie - Nope, I have nothing against the ship, and I'd love to see them together but the moment they used for it was really bad. We see a kid get chomped, people die horribly, and then Annie goes and asks, "hey Ahmin, I always got turned on when you were in front of my crystal"....like really? We didn't have a better moment to add their conversation?
2. Too many characters, thus less moments for each characters. Some of these characters like Connie or Jean don't even play a major part in the final fight except flying around in their gear. Even Hanje's death (which I praised for the way it was animated), feels like a cheap writing trick to show "meh...characters die too"
3. Mikasa's scarf bullshit - PLEASE, enough with this plot point. A woman worrying about her scarf and her sadistic love interest is the last thing I want to see when people are getting killed by mass murdering colossal titans. Romance DOES NOT suit this series.
4. Some panels not being animated - I'm not being picky, but a few of the most brutal panels of the rumbling were actually skipped. But I'm hoping they'll keep these for the next episode.


FEARED:

With all honesty, as much as I love Eren's character right now, I feel like the Isayama is writing himself to a corner. In the last episode we were forced to believe Eren was doing this so his friends can live long and happy lives, and now we see he is doing this because of his childish desire to transform the outside world to the way Armin wanted. Another part of him thinks about Historia while Zeke is mentioning Mikasa. Another part of him wants Paradis to be saved. Another part of him worries about Armin. At times it feels like the writer doesn't know where to take the character.

But I'm not letting this affect my review score. Even as a manga reader, I'm waiting to see what the conclusion will be. I definitely didn't like the conclusion of the manga but I am looking forward for the last episode.

"Perhaps it's not the journey that matters, but the female characters we NTRd along the way" - Hajime Isayama

There are plenty of "literature experts" in this fandom killing each other, so I thought it was time someone talked about the abomination that happened to the female characters.

Now let's see, we have two interesting female characters - Mikasa and Historia. One is badass and cool, could do with a bit of character development, and another had a whole arc for development and got her own manga cover and OST.

Now, how do we develop them further? According to Hajime Isayama you strip away the little personality ... the first character has and turn her into a souless doll, and then destory the other's entire development within a single arc. I hope Ymir and Eren are up there in the sky watching Historia and Mikasa riding two faceless dudes and having babies while crying and whining about it.

There were plenty of moments Mikasa could have gotten her development, and one of the core moments is when Eren tells calls her slave and tells he hated her. At this point Mikasa should be saying, "Screw it, I'll find a life without Eren" instead of getting dragged around by Armin like a lapdog. In fact, Mikasa could have been a better commander than Armin (who clearly has lost a few braincells during the final arc) since we already saw her motivate soldiers back in Season 1 after Eren's death. Funny how a single episode in Season 1 gives her more development than the whole final arc.

But what's her character arc?

"Ereh....Ereh...Ereh gone....Armin....Armin....Ereh....Ereh...killed Ereh...No Ereh...Harder Jean...Still Ereh..."

It's funny how her fans in social media think she's some well developed character when they still forget the basic principle most Hollywood movie producers forget these days - "Being badass is NOT equal to being a well written character". She can kill an entire army on her own but that doesn't matter if her character comes off on paper as bland, boring and one dimensional. It's funny how her fans still cannot speak about their headcanons about her development without involving the world "Eren".

Then we have Historia. Are you tried of the shoune trope where badass dude comes and saves the girl and the girl immediately falls in love with him? Yeah, me too. This is why I loved the writing of Historia's character. They completely twisted the trope and made the girl save the boy and showed how she went from the masked girl called Krista to the real girl Historia. Now, clearly no one can manage a way to ruin such a well written character right? Nope, they found a way. Hey let's sideline her by marrying her off to this random farmer, who doesn't have a name OR a face.

Eren being the father would actually make the pregnancy plot more sensible, but even then there are plenty of ways to write a great character without making her pregnant. Why can't she be Eren's ally WITHOUT getting pregnant? She could go into hiding, waiting till Eren activates the rumbling and then sieze back the political power with the help of the Yeagerists. Clearly Eren went out of the way to speak to her about his plans so it's obvious she knew what the hell was going to happen.

I can't believe I praised Isayama for writing complex female charcters. What a joke. And thanks to his writing Mikasa is labelled as a dog and Historia is labelled as a slut. If that's what he wanted, then Sasuga Yams, you win.