I think you missed something critical about the baby scene! It might look hopeless and depressing at first glance, but I think this is the most hopeful scene in the whole show.

It shows a crowd of people standing between falling to their death and getting crushed to death, there is no worse situation than that. But even in that terrifying moment, when the mother sends the baby to the crowd, everyone raises their hands to hold the baby up. Even when they all should worry about their own survival, they still choose to help. If even one of them hadn't raised their hands, the baby would be dead, but when it came down to it, every single one of them did.

I think it shows a lot about Isayama. Even with all the messaging about the cycles of hatred and war, deep inside he believes that humanity is good, and this scene is showing that.
So for me at least, that’s the most hopeful scene in the whole show!

The baby being kept alive never fails to bring a tear to my eye. It is the only scene in the series to provoke that response from me. By contrast, Armin's last stand against Berthtold in S3 just made me feel hollow and worn. Either way, this series is, say it with me, ABSOLUTE CINEMA!!

I was really into the Okopi tangent.

Man… I can’t believe we’re here. Your analysis has been a big part of my life for a few years. I looked forward to every single episode.

NEW AOT ANALYSIS TO SAVE MY BORING DAY IN THE HEATWAVE THANK YOU YOU'RE DOING THE LORD'S WORK KOROTO I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT

so early that the tree has yet to be explored.... wait which time?

Dude thank you so much for offering criticism that actually holds up to scrutiny and isn't just watching in bad faith because of headcannons. As a fan of game of thrones I know what a bad ending looks like. And although attack on titan has an ending that can feel too clean, it feels earned to me.

I do kind of agree that having no casualties in the main cast feels a bit strange. However, if I were asked to pick one or two characters to have die during this final battle? I'm not sure I could pick. None of their arcs finish properly until after The Rumbling, and in pretty much all cases their arc requires them survive it.
All of the remaining Scouts have truly given up their own dreams and goals in order to stop The Rumbling. All the things that they each dreamed of and joined the Scouts for originally were given up to join this fight, and in turn they then are all rewarded with it after Eren and Ymir are defeated;

Connie joined the military to earn the respect and approval of his parents, siblings, neighbors, etc. He gives up this goal by joining the Scouts instead of the MPs. He renews this sacrifice of his goal by allowing his mother to remain a titan in order to save Armin and let Falco live. In turn, after The Rumbling is over he is rewarded by having his mother restored to human form.

Jean joined to secure safety within the Military Police inside Wall Sina. He gives this goal up by joining the Scouts and trying to give purpose to Marco's death. He renews this sacrifice by rejecting Floch's offer to retire as a hero of the Jaegerists. In turn, after The Rumbling is over he is rewarded by becoming a hero of the world and living a comfortable life as a global diplomat.

Armin joins the Scouts to see the outside world and to give meaning to the deaths of his parents and grandpa. He sacrifices this dream when he gives up his life to defeat the Colossal Titan in Shiganshina. He is restored and is burdened with the mantle of responsibility, which he then uses to end his and Eren's dream. After the Rumbling ends, he is rewarded with a new hope for the future and a world that he could see just like in his grandpa's book.

Mikasa joins the military to protect and secure her remaining family. Her idea of family grows to include more friends, her relatives from across the sea, the people of the island she was born on, and eventually the people of the world. She ultimately has to give up her dream of living a nice peaceful life with Eren by being shouldered with the burden of killing Eren and ending his dream of freedom at the same time. She is rewarded with a peaceful life and closure for Eren's true feelings about her in the Cabin scene.

Levi joins the Scouts to give meaning to the lives of all of his fallen comrades. He is forced to give up all of his friends from each and every generation, but is ultimately rewarded by having the Curse of the Titans removed from existence. This effectively completes the core mission of the Scouts, giving purpose to the lives of the fallen.

Each of the Warriors are coerced into committing crimes against humanity, and are only truly tested when they are led to believe that their homes and families have all been lost. They renew their vow by giving up their dreams of reconciling with their parents, earning their respect and living a good life with them for the rest of their years. They are then rewarded when their families are discovered alive at Fort Salta and then restored to human form when Eren is killed. That covers Pieck, Reiner, Annie, Falco and Gabi.

All 5 Scouts and all 5 Warriors need to survive past The Rumbling for their arc to reach its end and their sacrifices to come full circle and be rewarded to them after they had truly believed those dreams to have been lost forever.

So then... who do we kill off and deny them the end of their arc? I can't make any good argument for any of them being killed.

28:30 This is one of my favourite scenes in the special as well honestly, one I think is really underrated. It's just the whole complete doubling down on that the Scouts WOULDN'T ever go through with the Rumbling. The whole idea of the Scouts fighting restlessly for a dream of an idealistic world, that core OPTIMISM of them as a group, is a fantastic, strong theme and message consistent throughout the story.

31:36 Psychologist here! Using Weiner's attribution theory, I would call this a depressive style of attribution. What that means is successes are attributed to the external world, failures to the internal (the person). At the same time, these things are seen as global / general, not variable. It's a very unhealthy style of attribution, hence the name.

30:22 every single time I hear Armin lamenting over his “failure”, I get goosebumps and tear up. Especially since you know he’s struggled his whole life with this. As someone with crippling self doubt and hatred, this hits so much harder than I’d like to admit

Eren specifically said he wants all his friends to live and that is his main goal. Given he ultimately chose the timeline to progress with, it makes perfect sense that all of the main cast lives going into this. I feel like Koroto has even mentioned this before, not 100% sure tho. Any dissent (such as the fact that Sasha died for example) can be cleared up with the idea that to even get to the Rumbling and produce a degree of “safety” for his close friends that Sasha was the trolley problem sacrifice. I could see Falco and/or Gabi being killed, but then you don’t get the symbolism of them starting things over after the finale.

My headcanon is that every titan shifter that is created becomes trapped in the Paths after they die, but generally only Ymir has the ability of "free" movement. They all become another branch of the "Tree" that originally only had one straight growth, which was Ymir. That's also how Ymir can pull all the past Titans to fight in the Battle of Heaven and Earth; they're all still there, though they may not be fully awake and in control of themselves. It took Armin and Zeke to "wake" the shifters they had a connection with in order for them to take full control over the constructs created with the Warhammer's power.

It's like another aspect of the "Curse of Ymir."

Armin in the paths broke me. Also, the best directed scene of the series imo:
Him screaming his self-hatred to his own face, Guilty Hero starting to play in the background, the cuts to the rumbling, fading all other noise and color away except the baby and it's screams...
I got shivers and tears at the same time, both the first time watching and again in cinema...

Edit: funfact, Guilty Hero is my second most played track of all time (over 1000 streams since the finale)
Needless to say, the hype this scene caused was and is still real

Another interpretation of "Heaven and Hell" could actually reverse the roles in a way, since Eren sees himself as a kid high above the clouds, free, almost heavenlike; and Armin is the successor to Erwin, who "became a devil for us".
Probably reaching but that's what We're here for

I need the titans of old times overanalysis, where Koroto goes over each of them.

いつもこのチャンネルで進撃の巨人の解説を楽しんで見ています。日本でもこれだけ1話ごとに細部まで解説しているチャンネルはありません。ほんとに素晴らしい。

I always enjoy watching the AOT commentary on this channel. There isn't another channel in Japan that provides such detailed commentary on each episode. It's truly amazing.

I understand that aot has always had massive casualties to the point that you fear for the entire main cast's lives by the end but I would argue that conditioning the viewers this way is enough.
Personally I started tearing up when Connie and jean got turned and I believe that having them killed would only benefit in condemning eren's plan even more.
Also it feels like if Eren saw more of his friends die due to his plan he'd at least consider "sewer slide" as his last option to avoid that future.
In any case great video as always sorry for the essay comment just wanted to give my view

BEEN HERE SINCE EPISODE 1!!
Thank you so very much for giving my unhealthy obsession for AOT some validity. AND thank you for showing me so many interesting little details in the show I never noticed!! This has been my absolute favorite series on YouTube for years now. Bravo, sir! Absolutely incredible work.

20:00 im fine with everyone basically surviving the battle because if anyone had died, it would take away from Eren's death. Plus, any death would feel like a side note compared to Eren's death.