I just completed the entire series 100% blind. I have a question.

Why is season 4’s entire story so controversial and why do so many people online claim Eren’s character was assassinated? Eren’s entire arc is probably hands down the greatest cautionary tale I’ve ever seen told and I love how we see his descent from standard shonen protagonist to authoritarian genocidal mastermind villain. I also love the tragic irony of the story how Eren, the one who kept marching forward for freedom the most, was the one person willing to strip the entire world of theirs in the name of freedom and how Eren himself was actually the least free of everyone. Also, given recent word events, I loved season 4’s themes of breaking out of indoctrinated “us vs the enemy” mindsets and how everyone on both sides acknowledges their flaws and their moral ambiguity and uses that acknowledgement as a way to join arms. That’s another layer of irony for me. In Eren’s march for freedom, he attempted to rob everyone of their freedom in the name of his and yet them all choosing to set their differences aside to join arms and fight Eren and his freedom is what ultimately lead to theirs. I’ve seen people argue Eren’s character was devolved because it was stupid that he could’ve just chosen to quit doing what he was doing at any point but he didn’t and that he’s poorly written because of that, but I think those people completely missed the point of Eren being a slave to freedom and him being a cautionary tale. I think they also misunderstand how Eren is meant to serve as the foil to Mikasa. Eren became a slave to freedom and perpetuated the curse and the cycle in doing so, essentially doing the opposite. Then Mikasa made the ultimate sacrifice and chose to break the curse and the cycle and in that moment had more freedom than Eren ever did.

Me personally, I think the seeds and foreshadowing for season 4 were there from even the very first episode and I enjoyed binging it all so much that I wish I could go back and do it all blind again. This series was up there with the likes of Breaking Bad and Silent Hill 2 for me as an all time great story, not just anime or show, but story in general. Like Breaking Bad, I personally rank the seasons in order as they came out because for me, this story was a nonstop snowball that just got greater and greater as it went on and it somehow managed to have a damn near perfect finale in my eyes.