A Few Thoughts on Hange's Death
CW: pretty depressing content, extreme bummer behavior
Though it was immensely upsetting for the audience of Attack on Titan, I think, despite everything, choosing to face death was somehow fitting for Hange's character. Life and death are two sides of the same coin, and Hange spent their time on Earth loving life, and perpetuating their faith in hopes of finding out what more it had to offer than what was set out before them. "What we can see and the true nature of what actually exists are totally different things." Death was an essential part of life that they had yet to discover. It was the side of it which was always shrouded in the dark. It makes sense for them to give themself over into death's arms rather than be stolen away.
And being afraid to die probably meets everyone as a feeling at some point in their lives. There's no doubt that Hange was terrified, in fact, it's obvious by the way they try not to look terrified. Yet the fact that they rise to meet death anyway is fitting. Even if I'm still heartbroken that they died, I'm glad that they were able to die as themself.
However, another thought which I've had for a while regards their last words. When Hange goes out to fight the titans, they give a wistful sort of sigh and say, "Titans truly are magnificent." This is a semblance of their former self, of their mad, eccentric nature showing through one last time. Then as they're fighting and see no signs of the airplane taking off, they exclaim to themself, "Still nothing?!" or "They need more time?!" This is, to some extent, indicating the heroism of their sacrifice, because if these had been their last words, it would've clearly stated, "They died to give their comrades more time."
(Haha, hold on, I did not read the manga correctly. Switching to an anime-only analysis, which is less credible, but oh well). So, neither of these were their last words [in the anime]. It had simply been "hot." While it's still clear that they died a hero to their comrades from looking at the context of the situation, I had been ruminating for a while on the fact that the sole word "hot" had been pain-related. It had been physically related. There's nothing related to Hange's incredible intellect or skill or love for life in having that as a last word, and I just think it shows that, no matter how heroically Hange may have died... they died. No matter how heroic, no matter how beautiful a death may look, death is still death. No matter how amazing they may have been, the pain of the fire could still strip them down to their primal instincts and mind.
I think this especially broke my heart about it, because it brought about such a sense of realism to their death. Hange's was the first fictional death which brought me to the brink of tears, lol. I resonate with them deeply, so of course, I must isolate my own bias to be taken into account, but I think since Hange was one of the most lively characters, or perhaps one of the most positive characters (along with Armin and Erwin, all of whom had that same look in their eyes which Levi recognised), seeing that their last words [in the anime only, lol] reflected none of their internal character is like a reminder to the audience: "This shouldn't have happened." Indeed, it happened, and indeed as the audience, we can't stop it, but nevertheless... genocide is wrong. War is not good. That's always been a message, it isn't as though Isayama has ever advocated for those things, contrary to what it seems some people believe. I took the adjustment from their last words in the manga to the new one in the anime as a more subtle way of spreading the message: "Look how spilling blood takes a beautiful, vivacious life and reduces them to a corpse."
