Va'esse deireadh aep eigean, va'esse eigh faidh'ar

No. 

At the same time, I want to acknowledge the fact that this chapter was disconcerting and upsetting. Historia’s scene was just No. Everything looks truly hopeless. People are going to feel frustrated, and that is completely fair.  I’m not sure all the panels of destruction were really necessary especially after chapter 131 already covered this. Hence I didn’t find them necessary to reinforce the theme of sacrificing children for the happiness of society. Bad pacing strikes again, and it’s triggering content too, so I think that is gonna upset people. I also agree that the diplomatic options were not explored as well as they could have been (again, partially a pacing thing I think), and that these would have helped the perception and helped reinforce the overall hope of the chapter--because it did leave me with a feeling of hope. 

So, yeah, I really do see hope that Eren will be defeated and the world will go on. If Eren does succeed, I will agree with the idea that it is framed poorly, but it just doesn’t seem to fit with what we have so far. 

(When discussing this answer with a friend, they informed me that this ask is likely in response to @momtaku​‘s post, which I had not seen? Momtaku is a great person and I love reading her posts, but (and I don’t think she’ll mind me saying this!) that obviously I don’t agree with the overall sentiment of the post, but I respect her feelings on this completely and her post provides a lot of food for thought and great points (so go read it!) Please don’t turn this into some kind of fandom meta writers vague thing!) 

So, let’s examine the framing: 

Chapter 83: the protagonist, Eren, tells us directly that Armin is the true hero of the story right before Armin gets resurrected. There is literally nothing to make us doubt that Eren is correct about this. 

Chapter 101: Mikasa, the character who loves Eren most and who embodies the theme of the cruel and beautiful world, tell us Eren is “irredeemable” after Liberio.

Chapter 105: shows us the literal death of one of the friends Eren is trying to save--and Sasha was killed by Gabi, who is drawn to physically resemble and behave like child!Eren. Eren’s actions killed Sasha. 

Chapter 111: child!Eren in Gabi is redeemed. She shows that change is possible for the brainwashed; thus, Eren is wrong that the only solution is mass murder. 

Chapter 112: has Eren lie to Mikasa and Armin in 112, hurting them. Both of Eren’s claims--Armin’s feelings for Annie and Mikasa’s for him--are later exposed as lies that Eren doesn’t even believe. He knows they are lies. Why are we to believe in him when he’s lying to the people closest to him? 

Chapter 113: Eren locks his best friends, the ones he’s trying to protect, up in prison. So much for freedom.

Chapter 119: Eren gets shot by his child!self, aka Gabi.

Chapter 122: Eren’s father begs for someone to stop Eren. 

Chapter 131: Eren hates himself. 

Chapter 133: Eren refuses talk no jitsu. 

Chapter 134: People again start to realize they were wrong--adults, too, so it isn’t just children like Gabi who can change. Eren’s friends are now coming to kill him. Armin, the hero, directly tells Eren that he’s not free. 

As for Eren’s friends being upset and blaming themselves... that is extremely psychologically realistic. I know that it is a popular belief in real life (and in fiction too, like here) that once a person/character is revealed as a villain, loved ones should immediately disavow them. Denial is a part of the grief process, and it is grief people feel, grief for the person/character they thought they knew. Grief is complex. Grief is painful. Grief is contradictory. It often does involve self-blame. Personally, I don’t think their reluctance to kill Eren is muddying the framing, but others might feel differently. 

I have long said the ending will be Mikasa killing Eren with Armin’s directive. That is a terribly sad ending, but I do think the world will continue. People are realizing how terribly wrong they have been (Karina, even if "too little too late” for me). The children are coming: the 104th is there, and Annie, Gabi, and Falco are on their way. 

it’s a bird, it’s a plane... 

The children are the future, remember. Even in this chapter’s pointless cruelty panels, a baby was saved. 

The reason I dislike the speech is because it is cheesy and unnatural, but I definitely don’t see the narrative supporting Eren or even taking it easy on him. His actions are being roundly condemned. That is the entire point of the horrifying visuals we got in this chapter - to get the reader to sympathize with the victims and not the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Eren is being portrayed as literally the most monstrous and inhuman thing I have ever seen put to paper. I am not concerned that the narrative is humanizing him too much.

I was frustrated with this chapter because it felt like it was wasting time showing us the violence we already knew was happening when there are so many loose ends that still need tying up. But it must have been reiterated here for a purpose, and I think that purpose was to clarify the message being delivered in the speech - not that anybody deserves what is happening to them right now, only that hatred begets hatred. It’s simply an observation and a lament, not justification.

I think too maybe our definitions of what constitutes a “cruel but beautiful” ending must differ. With the amount of death we’ve seen and Eren portrayed as a monster who will likely be killed by his loved ones, I struggle to find a path to beauty in that. The crowd working to save an infant life is officially beautiful but unless there is a miraculous save the majority of those in the crowd including that baby are dead in a matter of moments anyway. Goodness and humanity has been abundant throughout the manga but at moment it’s getting mercilessly trampled on a widespread and global level. I just can’t see what beauty will be left. The SC selflessly trying to stop Eren is beautiful but if the majority of mankind is already dead by the time they succeed, It’s nothing but a tragedy. I hope that’s not how it ends.

Artist | 豈可

What specifically has you conflicted? Is it his words about genocide?

Or his ideas about sacrificing Falco?

In either case, I’d say look at his face more than his words since it tells a different story. 

This is nothing new. Jean has always been acutely aware of how terrible any given situation is, but has able to rationalize what must be done and accept the outcome. That doesn’t mean he likes it, and that doesn’t mean he follows through. 

In the female titan arc when he, Armin and Reiner were stranded with only one horse, Jean was the one debating who should be left behind in the titan infested field. In RTS when it was time to kill Reiner, he’s the one who yelled at Connie and Sasha for showing weakness while he himself was crying and couldn’t make eye contact with them. In the Marley Arc when he braced himself to kill Falco the first time, he missed. Jean wasn’t sure if it was the smoke or if he flinched at the last minute.  (I wrote about these examples and Jean’s morality in this post. If you are worried, I think you’d enjoy reading it.)

This terrible situation on the rooftop is canon Jean being canon Jean. He doesn’t want to kill Falco. He doesn’t agree with Eren’s genocide. He’s stating the facts as rationally and unemotionally as he can to see if he can make sense of it. But it’s obvious from his expression that he’s hurting and that he hates this as much as we do. 

Three Viewpoints Selected Cases

The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 04 Hange's Side (1/3)

When Hange got up in the middle of their room, it looked nothing like it usually did.

"Wuh?! What's going on here?!"

…It was definitely the room they always used for research. But its floor, tables, and bookshelves had been changed entirely.

"I can't believe this… The whole place has been sacked."

The books were scattered, the lab equipment on top of the desk had met a horrible end, and fragments of wood and ropes had been scattered along the floor, leaving no place to so much as walk.

Hmm, this is bad. I don't remember a thing.

******

Just as Hange was feeling lost, they heard a knock at the door accompanied by a frantic voice.

"Squad Leader, Squad Leader…Hange!"

"Hm? Moblit!"

A moment later, Hange's aide broke through the door and entered the room holding a hatchet that must have come from a storehouse.

Hange noticed the broken lock on the door and realized that he must have broken the latch in order to come inside. Despite his imposing appearance, Hange's aide let his shoulders down as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Could you please answer if you're awake…?"

"What do you mean?"

"The door was locked and you weren't replying at all. I had no choice but to destroy the door…but what happened here?"

Moblit had been so preoccupied with confirming the safety of his superior officer that he only now showed surprise once more, having seen the terrible state of the room.

******

"…Your books and lab equipment. What happened to everything?"

"What should I do? I wonder if I did this?"

"You don't remember?!"

"Not at all," Hange said as they scratched their tousled head.

They remembered declaring that they would be holing up in the room for an experiment. That must have been what they were doing, given the prototypes scattered around. While there were some half-scribbled notes, they ended with a notice that the experiment was about to begin.

"Let's start from the beginning and sort everything out. I was passed out here for a while, right?"

"Yes. It seems like you told Nifa that you'd be in here for a while. It was quiet whenever we passed by, for quite some time."

He said everyone had left Hange alone for a while because it was assumed they were taking a nap.

"But then we received some paperwork that needed immediate confirmation and needed to wake you up."

That was when Moblit did everything to wake Hange up, making loud noises and beating on the door.

"I was afraid that your heart had finally exploded from all of the excitement…"

"Hah, you worry too much. I don't even have a scratch on me… Or probably not."

Hange finished the work given to them by their subordinates a few minutes later, then went to Erwin to explain the situation.

"And that's what happened, Erwin, but I don't remember doing it at all. So please, just don't make me write an apology…"

"At the moment, I'm afraid that's exactly what you're going to have to do," the Commander of the Survey Corps said after hearing Hange out, shaking his head without emotion.

"It was a room locked from the inside, with no way in or out, right? In that case, the only one who could have destroyed that room was you, Hange."

Though it was a daily occurrence for things to break in the course of Hange's duties, given their enthusiasm for Titan research, they were also living in a resource-starved world. The Corps's equipment was under close management, and anything that was broken had to be procured again and taken out of the budget.

Hange knew this well enough. But there was a reason they thought this wasn't their fault.

"Think about it. My Squad was working on new types of weapons. Even our valuable prototypes were in pieces. Do you really think that's something I would do?"

Erwin remained calm. The order he gave was not to pin down a criminal but to find the truth.

"…Alright, then."

Hange decided to start by going to a subordinate who might know what was going on.

Good Night, Dear and Sweet Dreams (Goodnight. Sweet dreams, dear)

It was once said the dreams are a mirror of one's heart. Perhaps dreams are a respite that allow one to forget their cruel and brutal day, or they might be an abyss even harsher than reality… What will tonight's rest bring?

Vol. 01 Sasha Blouse

Vol. 02 Levi

Vol. 03 Bertolt Hoover

Vol. 04 Armin Arlert

Vol. 05 Hange Zöe

Vol. 06 Marco Bott

Vol. 07 Annie Leonhart

Vol. 08 Jean Kirstein

Vol. 09 Moblit Berner

Vol. 10 Mikasa Ackerman

Vol. 11 Connie Springer

Vol. 12 Reiner Braun

Vol. 13 Carla Yeager

Vol. 14 Ymir

Vol. 15 Eren Yeager

******

Good Night, Dear and Sweet Dreams series is published in the Attack on Titan: Short Stories booklet that was included in the Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 1 Manga Box Set [ BUY HERE ]

The Following Stories under the same series had also been published on the AU Smartpass Website [ LINK ] but not included in the Booklet

Nile Dok

Oluo Bozado

Hannes

Erwin Smith

Krista Lenz

Mike Zacharias