Post-Rumbling Reflections (A Tribute)

Attack on Titan fans, where you at?

I just finished the series… and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again. It took me days to even begin processing what I've seen, and honestly, I’m still not over it. Not one bit. No story has ever hit me this deep, no character arc has ever wrecked me this hard. This isn’t just a show, it’s a well-crafted, soul-crushing masterpiece. The greatest I’ve ever seen. I’ve spent countless hours buried in Reddit threads, watching YouTube deep-dives, and even had a full-blown existential conversation with ChatGPT about it… and still, the need for closure lingers.

If you’re reading this thinking, "what a pathetic loser," I don’t blame you. But if you’ve seen it or read the manga, then I know this probably cuts deep.

The Emotional Rollercoaster

The gravity of this story is so profound, I’m genuinely shaken by the psychological weight it left behind. It didn’t just mess with my head, it challenged my moral compass, made me question right and wrong, and left me haunted by how it made me almost justify the unjustifiable. What makes Attack on Titan so brutal isn’t just the death toll or the shocking betrayals. It’s the moral fog. It’s how you start the show screaming for justice, and end it wondering if justice was ever real to begin with. It holds a mirror to your beliefs, cracks them, and dares you to look anyway.

I didn’t just watch a show about a boy trying to save his people by destroying the world. I witnessed a terrifying, all-too-human transformation that felt disturbingly real. And somehow, even after everything that happened, I still cried for him. That feeling alone made me question everything; loyalty, freedom, revenge, love, sacrifice, and whether I even had the right to feel the way I did. At some point, you realize you’re not just watching an anime anymore, you’re being quietly dismantled by it.

I won’t go into plot breakdowns or unravel fan theories, there’s literally a bottomless pit of content online that could take you a lifetime to get through. But what I will do is offer a small tribute to this masterpiece, in the only way I know how! And if you’ve read my blog, then you know I rely heavily on humor to make sense of the world and to keep moving forward (not in the Eren Yeager way, don’t worry). 

So naturally, what follows is a bittersweet blend of sarcasm and sincerity, boxed up as what one might call an emotional damage report, detailing my personal breakdown of how and why this story hit me so deeply. From its brutal reflections on freedom and sacrifice, to the unbearable grief of losing characters who felt painfully real, to the way it blurred the lines between hero and villain until I didn’t know what side I was on anymore; this is everything Attack on Titan left behind in its wake.

Emotional Damage Report: The Aftermath of consuming AOT

Status: Morally compromised, mentally unwell, emotionally invested in fictional genocide

Filed under: "I will never be the same again"

Pillars of Damage

1. Moral Disintegration

Diagnosis: Loss of ethical clarity and questionable empathy for war criminals

Symptoms include:

• Crying over Eren’s sacrifice like it was a personal loss

• Saying "tatakae" before meetings like I’m about to declare war on the entire agenda

• The unshakable urge to become an anime character solely to fix Eren Yeager with love, logic, and maybe a hug

2. Timeline-Induced Identity Crisis

Diagnosis: Inability to process linear time

Manifestations:

• Believing all versions of me are in a multiverse conspiracy

• Googling "is freedom real or a construct of inherited trauma?" at 3AM

• Feeling personally attacked by time-traveling Eren gaslighting himself (and me, you, us, ALL OF US)

3. Severe Fictional Grief

Diagnosis: Emotional collapse over people who were never real

Side effects:

• Still holding a grudge against Gabi (yes, I know, character growth…don’t care)

• Avoiding potatoes, not because of carbs, but because the pain is still too fresh

• Imagining alternate universes where the Scouts are alive and cleaning kitchens like never before

4. Post-Titan Void Syndrome

Diagnosis: Emotional burnout and inability to function like a reasonably balanced human being

Observed outcomes:

• Inability to enjoy other shows

• Responding to silence with silence. That post "Eren just wiped out 80% of the world" silence? Yep...

• Judging Mikasa’s actions like I’m personally responsible for humanity’s fate • Rewatching Levi scenes like they’re therapy. The man blinked and I felt peace

• Secretly wishing Eren and Mikasa got their alternate ending. Let the world burn, I just wanted them to be happy (sobs quietly in the corner)

The Treatment Plan For Survivors of the AOT Emotional Apocalypse

The only way forward (again, not in the Eren Yeager way) is through controlled doses of humor, rewatching responsibly, and talking to fellow survivors who understand what "thank you for becoming a mass murderer for our sake" really means. And most importantly, accepting the void. You won’t fully recover and maybe you’re not supposed to. Because stories like this are meant to linger; in the questions they leave us with, in the mark they leave on us, and in the strange way they help us accept the world as it is and not as we want it to be.

The Resolution

You don’t just finish Attack on Titan. You carry it.

It changes how you see the world, how you understand sacrifice, love, and the weight of a decision. It makes you question who the enemy really is, and if you're any better. And despite it all, you still mourn the boy who just wanted to be free.

So no, this isn’t a goodbye. This is a thank you.

A thank you to a story that broke me, rebuilt me, and left me looking at the sky a little differently, a thank you to every flawed, unforgettable character, and a thank you to Isayama, for helping me understand the true cost of freedom.

See you later, Eren.