I absolutely love Attack on Titan and it's one of the best anime's I have ever seen. Even the clown show ending from the manga has been fixed to an great extent in the anime. The anime has so many excellent moments which are some of the best written scenes in anime.
The fanbase is insufferable though. It's either full of "Eren is literally me" mfs or glazers with no sense of reality and I'm pissed at liking the same thing as them.
Haven't read the manga and I haven't watched the last episode, but I like it well enough.
Idrc about author's intent in this case because I read it as a portrayal of imperialistic nationalism taken to its logical conclusion: total annihilation. I deliberately ignore most parallels between the AoT world and the real world (Japan, Israel, Holocaust) because if I acknowledged them the show would probably be incredibly lib.
And I love me some overdramatic slop sometimes.
I've watched it as it was released tbf, maybe if I get around to it I'll rewatch it from the beginning with a more critical eye.