So... About the last pages of SNK.
To be honest I was a little shook and while there are some things that I didn’t like, (and some others I didn’t really understood) I still think it’s a good example of how life works.
A lot of people say that Armin didn’t save Paradis at all since at the end it got destroyed anyway, but I want to remind you all that there was a period of peace long enough that Mikasa herself got to grow old, get married and have children of her own.
I get that it sucks to know at the end how Paradis got destroyed by war after everything that happened; but again that’s the reality of life. Nothing lasts for ever and no amount of “good actions” guarantee you a happy ending with no pain in sight.
As the song “Reluctant Heroes” says:
“The peaceful times have made us blind”.
We got to see Armin, Jean, Mikasa, Annie and everyone else with somewhat a “happy ending” in chapter 139, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any struggles for them later in life; for all we know some of them could have died long before Mikasa did.
Life isn’t easy and it’s impossible to live without pain or difficulties of any kind, and I like that Isayama still had that mindset in the end.
And while some of you may see the new pages and may be reading this thinking: “So that’s all? Is life always painful and meaningless? Was everything they did for nothing?” I would like to remind you the fact that Mikasa had a family and while yes, she lost the man she loved (whether you see them as brothers or lovers), she also got to live a long life, to see her children grow up and lived peacefully that way until she died of age.
I don’t know about you guys, but if I were in Eren or Armin’s shoes, I would be one hundred percent satisfied just knowing that everything I did wasn’t in vain; that at least it changed things long enough for my loved ones to have their own life and be (hopefully) happy.
That being said (and while I could have gone with my life without ever reading the new pages lmao) the enormous hint that Titans may still come back in the end was quite a shook.
Still don’t know 100% how I feel about that, but tbh it’s still the same feeling I explained above. That’s life for you and it’s time for the next generation to struggle with their own problems. Just as in real life.
So good luck, “Beren”, sure as hell you’re gonna need it!