Attack on Titan Will Always Age Gracefully Thanks to Its Core Themes, Isayama’s Genius Explained

Attack on Titan is now considered a new modern classic in the world of anime. It stands tall as a genius masterpiece that will always age gracefully thanks to its superb and thought-provoking writing. But how did creator Hajime Isayama craft such an intelligent piece of manga, and how do the core themes of the series shape the surrounding conversation, and how will it stand the test of time?

Let’s explore what makes Attack on Titan so special and why it will always be considered a timeless classic, thanks to author Hajime Isayama’s genius storytelling and narrative.

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The Cycle of Hatred

The Core Theme of Attack on Titan

The cycle of hatred is perhaps the most prevalent idea in the writing of Attack on Titan. How people are taught to hate each other and how their destructive impulses permeate through generations is one of the key components of the storyline of the series. How different factions are groomed towards violence and attack each other, and how violence is the one ongoing trend throughout the generations that the characters live through.

The prime example of this is, of course, the torturous life of the people in Paradis contrasting with the people of Marley. The people of Marley hate and repress the Eldians because of their past crimes as the Empire of Eldia and King Fritz. While the people of Eldia want to start a revolution for freedom from the oppression of Marley. This eventually leads to the Warrior Program and the operation to retake the Founding Titan on the island of Paradis. The operation that kickstarts the events of the series and the life of Eren Yeager as this caused the death of his mother.

The Armored Titan, Reiner Braun, and the rest of the Warriors were indoctrinated to hate their own people and to see them as soulless monsters, and because of the destruction they caused in Paradis, they were then hated by Eren and his friends. The Warriors at Marley and the others are all the same race, Eldians, and yet they were pitted against each other in a cruel attempt to fight fire with fire. Marley sees Eldians not as people but at best as man-eating monsters, and so they use their power to kill each other.

I am a warrior, I will finish what I start no matter what

By teaching the warriors to hate their own people as kids, they effectively turn them into weapons against their own kind and by having them hurt the people of Paradis taking the hatred of their fellow Eldians on the island, turning them into soldiers without any real allegiance, as they are used by their real enemies and hated by their own people. This eventually, along with the procedure of becoming a double agent, completely messes up the psyche of Reiner Braun the Armored Titan, as he develops severe post-traumatic stress disorder and a split personality.

And at the same time, on the other hand, this sent Eren Yeager into this life of hatred and revenge against the Warriors and subsequently against Marley, the life that will forever doom his destiny. After the Scout legion effectively defeats and captures Annie Leonhardt, the Female Titan, and kills Berthold Hoover, the Colossal Titan, they then face the hatred of the next generation of warriors as they seek revenge for the fall of their comrades, just as they keep being used as weapons by Marley.

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This then leads into the final conflict of the series. The rumbling where the people of Paradis, after learning of this tragic history, split into sides, one of them being the Yeagerists, who opted to initiate the rumbling to kill all the people beyond the walls that had oppressed them. In a deranged quest for revenge and retribution, they enact global genocide against all the people beyond the walls, regardless of their allegiance, gender, or age, as the rumbling is a global genocide unlike anything ever seen before.

The Moral Dilemma of the rumbling

The Divisive Element of the Finale

The final arc and conflict of Attack on Titan is the rumbling, a massive-scale attack on the world beyond the walls of Paradis Island by activating and controlling thousands of colossal titans to have them walk across the world, trampling and destroying everything in their path. The most heinous part of the rumbling is how it kills without discrimination or distinction, as it completely tramples land, people, and animals in its path. The rumbling is the ultimate revenge against the world that has wronged a sector of people who have been oppressed for hundreds of years, but the dilemma is whether it is justified.

Someone who can’t sacrifice anything, can’t ever change anything

Is it the right way to gain freedom and to seek peace against a world that has hurt your people for thousands of years, or is it just as unjustifiable as the oppression that they have gone through? This is the key moral dilemma that the series presents to the audience, and the reason why the Attack on Titan fandom was so divided towards the end of the series, and perhaps still is to this day, as whoever you ask will give you a different answer, just like the characters in the story.

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The fact is that the terrifying act of the rumbling kills millions of people who aren’t involved in the conflict against Eldia, just as the people of Eldia were oppressed for things that they didn’t even know about. A key conversation between Gabi and Kaya expertly portrays this, as Gabi explains through her indoctrination into hatred that the people of Paradis have to pay for the crimes of their ancestors. However, Kaya replies that her mother, who was killed by a titan in front of her eyes when she was a little girl, has nothing to do with this conflict, as she had no idea about the existence of the Goddess Ymir or King Fritz or the oppression that the Empire of Eldia inflicted upon the world two thousand years ago.

These things touch on real-life issues that are transpiring right now, as we’ve seen oppressed people rise many years later with revolution because of the oppression they went through before. Are the oppressed people justified in seeking revenge against others who may not even have anything to do with their past oppressions, or can they reach a much more diplomatic resolution? This is why the final arc of Attack on Titan divided the fandom, because many people in the demographic that had seen oppression by other groups in history sided with the Yeagerists, while others sided with the Alliance to denounce and reject genocide, no matter the circumstances. And this is exactly the key to the series. This is why Attack on Titan will always age as a masterpiece, because in a medium that is often reduced to just flashy action and comedy, Attack on Titan, like all the great stories, is there to ask questions and not answer them fully, instead to leaving them up to the audience to debate.

Attack on Titan, rather than reduce itself to action and character drama, ponders philosophical and moral dilemmas that are atemporal and will stand the test of time as they apply to real world events. This is the genius of Hajime Isayama’s writing and why the series will always be a new modern classic.