I've officially reread Chapter 139 of Attack on Titan 5 times and I feel I've now got a good grasp of it to finally give my full thoughts in this thread, and why I don't think it ruins the entire series, but still pointing out what went wrong.

also spoilers lol

What went wrong:

To get the obvious out of the way, the pacing and dialogue of this chapter (and mainly the writing of the rumbling arc in general) is pretty sloppy. 139 is insanely rushed.

at many points dedicating so much as a single panel to explain a pivotal plot point or reveal only to then brush it away. Pacing has always been an issue for AOT, but it has never been this bad before. But even then, the writing and dialogue would usually make up for it.

unfortunately the dialogue in 139 is god awful. Things like Armin thanking Eren for "becoming a mass murderer" are absolutely hilarious and it's completely unintentional. The pacing and dialogue ruin would what otherwise be a great chapter filled with emotion.

because believe it or not, Eren looking like a complete soyboy simp is a biproduct of the rushed pacing and dialogue, not the idea of Eren still loving Mikasa. The ending itself would've been a rather fitting and thematically sound conclusion if more was elaborated on

and if the dialogue wasn't so bad. It initially made me a lot more bitter towards the chapter when I first reread it because I thought Isayama had just fucked up basically everything, but I can see that there are genuinely great
emotional beats and thematic cohesion here, it's...

just completely tainted by its execution. In terms of characters, it was really disappointing to see Historia basically do nothing the entire time, and while her being Team Eren was interesting, the chapter ends her character on a very unsatisfactory note.

Reiner was done absolutely dirty at the end of the chapter. His character isn't ruined by any means, he's far and away one of the greatest characters in the manga, but to have his final scene be a joke about him sniffing a letter from Historia felt really off

and I would've liked some more closure. Then there's Ymir...God.

Ymir is just plain fucking confusing. From what I and many have gathered, she wanted Mikasa to show her the way to save the Eldians from the Titans and this is then tied up by her love for Karl Fritz being a parallel to the love between Mikasa and Eren

and Mikasa letting go of Eren and killing him allows Ymir to break free from her slavery to Fritz and vanquish the Titans? Now correct me if I'm wrong, but this is violently stupid.

This has potentially retconned a lot of stuff in the previous chapters, not on the level of story-ruining, but it is an aggressively dumb plot point. I see what they were trying to do with the parallels, but it just does not work.

Moving on, Eren being revealed as the one who killed his mother all along to protect Bertholdt (thats the simplest way I can put it) is not something I myself have a problem with, it's the fact that it's not elaborated on at all

and literally has a single page dedicated to it.

I will say that this doesn't make Eren's disdain towards Reiner with "why did my mother have to die" confusing as he literally says in that scene that they had no choice and it was practically fate. But the reveal itself was terribly handled.

What went right:

Levi got the best possible ending out of all of the characters and I couldn't be happier honestly. The scene with his fallen comrades was absolutely beautiful and I have 0 complaints.

Eren's ending, while not perfect, was ruined mainly by the rushed pacing and dialogue, but I honestly do appreciate what Isayama tried to do here and if the pacing and dialogue weren't complete jank I honestly think people would be a lot less outraged.

Eren's character was not completely slaughtered, although he did barely make it out unscathed.

The ending in general with Eldia's future, the cycle of war, and the final few pages, while still not perfect, are a lot better than people give them credit for.

I've already seen the people accusing Attack on Titan of being nationalistic and facsist come out of the woodworks again because of this ending, and I admit
it was not handled in the best way, but to purposefully twist this ending in the worst possible way whilst ignoring...

the entire subtext of this series as well as what the series as a whole has had to say about war and fascism is blatantly bad faith.

Many have made memes about Eren coming back as a bird to wrap Mikasa's scarf around her neck and yeah it can look dumb after the disappointment of the chapter as a whole, but I do think this would've been a fantastic ending note if everything else stuck the landing.

Overall, the ending is definitely bad. There are just far too many negatives than positives here, and it's a damn shame because everything this chapter TRIED to pull off
should've been great with enough time and care

but it got completely squandered by rushed pacing and shoddy, cringey dialogue. However, whilst the ending was a massive letdown, it should not ruin what was otherwise an undeniably goated series.

It's easy to be consumed with disappointment about these things, but AOT's ending isn't close to being Game of Thrones bad, Season 8 of that show tore absolutely everything to shreds without remorse whilst AOT's ending actually attempted to end things on a satisfying note

while trying to keep damage to a minimum. The rumbling arc as a whole has probably been the shakiest in the series, despite many good moments.

But after a whole decade of some of the greatest writing to come from manga, I don't believe it is fair to judge the entire series on a shoddy ending.

I still adore Attack on Titan, and I thank Isayama for allowing us to experience a, not joking here, once in a lifetime story.

(Now if MAPPA can somehow save the ending a bit then that'd honestly surprise me)