How Fake Leaks Damaged The Fandom

When you have a very political story like Attack on Titan, you unfortunately attract audiences with certain political ideologies that project their affiliations onto the characters. And this is exactly what happened during the rumbling arc of Attack on Titan. Because of the division between the group led by Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert and the former allies, which turned into a genocidal army, this at the same time caused division in the fandom.

The polarizing ideas clashed during the rumbling arc as the fate of the world was at stake due to the actions of the main character, Eren Yeager. And because of the leak culture that has overtaken anime and manga, this eventually took a turn for the worse. Let’s analyze how fake leaks regarding the finale of Attack on Titan completely divided and damaged the fandom forever. Turning the ending of this series into a much more conflicting and polarizing event than it needed to be.

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The Fake Leak That Started It All

A fake finale that divided the fandom

During the final portion of Attack on Titan manga, the entire fandom was anxiously waiting to see what would happen to the main characters and the fate of the world. At the point where Armin used his Colossal Titan ability to destroy the Doomsday Titan and effectively stop the rumbling, the chapter ended in a cliffhanger, which led to rampant speculation and theories. By that time, the fandom had gotten accustomed to having a “preview” of the upcoming chapter release on Reddit or Twitter.

This is a practice that has become a mainstay for the anime and manga communities at large, and it was especially rampant during the realization of other major manga, like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. The Attack on Titan fandom had grown over reliant on this practice, most likely due to their impatience of seeing the outcome of their beloved series, but also on the side of conflict within the fandom because of the dividing ideals regarding the story. A side of the fandom had chosen to side with Eren Yeager and his followers as they supported the idea of the rumbling as an act of revenge against the world that has oppressed the Eldians. A very large part of the community was wishing for Eren to kill all of his friends and complete the rumbling, decimating the entire world outside of the Island.

There was also an element of shipping wars in this discourse, as a portion of that side of the fandom saw a much more fitting partner for Eren in Historia and a lot of these fans on this side also garnered a deep hatred for Mikasa Ackerman, which extended to her voice actress Yui Ishikawa. So, the political and moral dilemma in the story became much more severe as it expanded towards real life in the fandom.

Then, a leak emerged from Reddit that supposedly gave fans a full preview of what was to happen after Armin destroyed the Doomsday Titan. According to this leak, Eren would use the power of the Warhammer titan to come back to his real body that was in Paradise Island, go up to Historia’s baby, who, according to some fans, was his, touch her, and reactivate the rumbling. By doing this, he would kill all of his friends and immediately complete the genocide of the world and destroy every last bit of civilization outside of Paradise Island, and go back to his home with Historia. And then a few days later, the real chapter was released and, as we know now, none of these events transpired.

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The real ending of Attack on Titan saw Eren’s friends defeat him and kill him, stopping the rumbling and saving what was left of the world from their cherished friend. This leak was quickly proven to be false as soon as the chapter was released, but instead of accepting the ending, the side of the fandom that had sided with the rumbling began to spread the theory that the events stated in the leak were the original ending that author Hajime Isayama had planned for the series and because of fan backlash and his editors influence he had changed the ending last minute to accommodate for a much happier ending.

Once the series ended in the manga and the anime adaptation continued by the hand of studio Mappa this side of the fandom began to believe in a massive fan theory that they called “anime original ending”, stating that the anime was going to completely divert from the original ending in the manga and instead adapt the ending stated in the leak which they firmly believe to be the real intended ending for Attack on Titan. They began to meticulously analyze several hints and scenes in the WIT studio anime and even elements of expanded material, just like anime openings, endings, and songs in an effort to point towards this anime original ending they desired.

For years, this theory took on much more conflictive connotations, as both sides of the fandom continuously fought each other over this theory. The side that liked the original manga ending and were sure that the anime would not change it, and the side that strongly disliked it and was desperately hoping that the anime would completely change it. They continuously pointed to original scenes made in the WIT studio adaptation as a hint that the anime was going to follow a completely different path from that of the manga; they even referenced promotional material and even the soundtrack in a desperate effort to give more fuel to the theory.

Eventually, a group of artists belonging to this fandom began a project to illustrate their desired ending for the series. There were two projects, one in manga form and one in animated form. The manga project released a few chapters until it was discontinued, but the animation only received a teaser trailer until the team behind it split apart due to creative and personal differences.

That side of the fandom also went to Reddit, where they started a dedicated subReddit as an echo chamber to discuss this potential anime original ending, but on a much darker note, discussing members of the other side of the community and often creating very dark memes with the Attack on Titan characters and setting reflecting events in real life. Due to the memes shared in this sub-Reddit, members from the other side of the community noted that many of these supporters of this anime original theory had certain extremist ideologies that explained their desire to see the rumbling be completed in real life, as well as their hatred towards Mikasa Ackerman. They began a very widespread nickname for Mikasa. And they relentlessly used it to refer to the counter and even to her voice actress. The nickname “Dogkasa” leaned on racial and misogynistic undertones regarding the character, as Mikasa is a Japanese woman with a very tomboyish appearance and personality.

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During live streams or public videos featuring Yui Ishikawa, this side of the fandom relentlessly bombarded the live chat using dog emojis and the nickname to harass Mikasa Ackerman and, by extension, her voice actress. This hatred also extended to Onyankopon, one of the very few black characters among the cast of Attack on Titan. And he was portrayed in Photoshop images reflecting real-life tragedies. It was very clear why this side of the fandom firmly supported the rumbling and its genocide result, as they held very bigoted ideals in real life, and they projected those onto the characters of the series. This got extremely violent on social media as both sides of the fandom continuously fought each other. And at several points, there were many instances of cyberbullying and harassment from the radical side of the fandom.

There were many fanarts shared by the extremist side that portrayed horrific settings for the characters of Attack on Titan, such as Eren, Historia, and the Yeagerists killing the alliance in horrific ways. What was much more damaging was that this radical side was much more vocal and loud on social media, which made it so that it was perceived as the main side of the Attack on Titan fandom, which gave the entire audience of Attack on Titan an extremely negative reputation on social media. For years, until the adaptation of the ending of Attack on Titan by studio MAPPA, the fandom and the series garnered a negative and divisive reputation because of the ongoing war between the two sides of the manga ending which was extremely polarizing for most audiences.

Eventually, when studio MAPPA finally adapted the finale of the series, this side of the fandom suffered a huge collective meltdown when they realized that their theory was proven false. Realistically, this extremist side was always more focused on the Western audience, as most fans in Japan collectively enjoyed the ending of the manga. While anime original endings have occurred many times in anime, it is not because of the bad reception regarding the manga’s ending, but rather artistic decisions by the studio behind the anime. Therefore, no matter how you slice it, it was always incredibly unlikely that studio MAPPA would change the ending of a series to appease a very vocal but still minority of the fanbase that was also mostly focused on the Western audience, as anime will always prioritize the Japanese audience.

Disregarding this theory and the damage the fake leak did to the Attack on Titan fandom, the anime adaptation by studio MAPPA greatly improved on the original manga ending and successfully changed the minds of many detractors from the ending that didn’t engage in this anime original ending theory. The fact is that a large portion of the audience was displeased with the finale of the series, and at the end of the day the adaptation by studio MAPPA greatly improved upon the ending written by author Hajime Isayama. Whether that Reddit leak was made with malicious intentions is unknown, as well as the true origins of the leak, but what cannot be understated is the long-lasting effect it had on the Attack on Titan fandom, which still exists to this day. This is, by all accounts, a cautionary tale on why anime and manga fans shouldn’t overly rely on leaks to consume their favorite series. Instead, support the official release by all means necessary and always just rely on official sources.