I just finished watching AOT, started it ~2 weeks ago, and season 4/timeskip absolutely sucked
Haven't read manga, haven't heard spoilers. Sorry this is so long.
Seasons 1-3 were really great, they were unpredictable in a positive way, I liked that I didn't know where it was all going, finally something different. I watched them all in 4 days.
A few weaker/weird moments (early uprising arc/season 3 part 1, battle of Trost after Eren turns into titan to protect Armin and Mikasa) taught me that even if it's weird and I don't know what's going on, it's gonna get really good soon.
Until they got to the basement...
Well yeah, it was obvious there was some civilization outside the walls, it was hinted before, and that Reiner, Berthold and Annie came from there and were brainwashed.
I liked the flashback, but I wouldn't imagine that's how Eren wants to solve Marlyeans hating them...
Time travel is very rarely done well, and AOT isn't that case, I didn't think after 3 normal seasons (except for Eren Kruger mentioning Mikasa and Armin, but that was minor) we were gonna go down this road...
But going back to start of season 4/Marley arc, it feels like Eren wasn't the protagonist anymore, and I don't know what's the point, he was never perfect and stable, but come on... GENOCIDE??? Then every other important character changing sides a few times
it's not even "mystery" anymore, it doesn't make sense, or them being completely forgotten.
And the whole Ymir founder thing??? really? she went into a tree, fell down a hole into an underground lake and a magical worm-god gave her powers??? WTF??? That's the mystery??? It's not even explained. And the whole paths dimension where time doesn't flow and there's sand everywhere and she's making titans from sand???
Eren didn't have free will is bullshit, he did before Marley arc, he wasn't "just an idiot" but was shown making decisions, it was implied he actually had a choice. He wouldn't choose to kill 80% of world population including many paradis island people, if people fear you're devils and will kill them then doing exactly this doesn't fix the issue, and he wouldn't order Dina to eat his mother, that's fucking pointless.
Well they were *some* moments and characters from season 4 that I liked, but you know, for me everything before marley arc was very close to 10/10, so I kept watching thinking "Eren is gonna be a normal protagonist again soon" and nope he didn't.
Also about time travel, no Eren, you haven't "tried it many times" it only happened once, even if you're an idiot times is linear.
At the beggining of season 4 I thought Falco can be convinced to be on Paradis island's side, and he will convince Gabi, and idk, something normal will happen like they will convince all the Eldians to be restoriationists and rebel, they will sit at a round table(intentional reference) and talk to Marlyeans about some plan idk.
And even going down the PATHS road, why didn't Eren ask Ymir to remove titan powers right away??? Why kill 80% of population??? Also why Ymir wanted this?
And what's with the credit scene, no titan powers means some random kid will get them because parasite-god said so??? Why did it just dissapear and was never explained...
tl;dr I loved everything prior to Marley arc/season 4 and hated everything later. If you're ever an author, please don't ruin a great story with time travel/predetermination and lack of free will.
english isn't my first language and it's nearly 2 am when I'm writing this