Attack on Titan is a complex series. There are constant twists and turns, and even when you think you know who the bad guy is, things can shift on a dime. So, here’s an explainer for the ending of Attack on Titan‘s Final Season to clear things up.
Attack on Titan’s Final Season Ending, Explained
Attack on Titan‘s final Special is available now, and it picks up right where the first one left off, with Armin and the rest of the Scouts, as well as a few Marleyans, ready to take on Eren. The battle wastes no time beginning, and the heroes are up against familiar foes: Past versions of the Nine Titans. And things only get more complicated when Armin is taken captive, leaving the Scouts without their leader.
Levi and the rest fight as long as they can, but they nearly meet their end, only being saved when Annie and Gabi arrive on Falco’s back. Things get testy between the remaining Marleyans and Eldians as the Scouts come up with a new plan to save Armin, who’s on a soul-searching mission of his own in the Paths.
However, a familiar face, Zeke, reveals himself and inadvertently helps Armin come to grips with his place in the conflict. They work together and bring some of the past Titans, including Bertholdt, to their side and turn the tide of the battle. Zeke even shows himself to Levi so the two can have one last chat, but humanity’s strongest soldier wastes no time in decapitating his nemesis and ending the Rumbling by severing his connection to Eren.
With the Scouts finally having the upper hand, they blow Eren’s Titan head clean off, and Armin turns into the Colossal Titan to deliver what they think will be the killing blow. Of course, that doesn’t end up working, as Eren shifts into his own Colossal Titan and begins fighting Armin as the affectable Scouts and Marleyans, including Jean and Connie, are turned into Titans by the creature that first turned Ymir 2,000 years ago.
And it’s at this moment that Mikasa finally decides to kill Eren. She sees a vision of the two of them living together in a cabin, which is meant to show her the life she would have had if she had answered Eren’s question from earlier in the season another way, but it’s not enough to sway her. She kills Eren as Ymir watches on, which opens the door for Eren to reveal his true intentions.
Eren comes to Armin in a vision to tell him that he never meant to destroy the entire world, only to save his friends’ place in it. He turned into a villain because he knew they would fight against him and become heroes. Eren even explains that because of the abilities granted to him by the Founding Titan, he was the one that sent the Titan after his mom in the first episode because it was going after Bertholdt, who needed to live.
Armin doesn’t appreciate the fact that Eren took on this burden alone, and even Eren admits he is to blame because he was drunk on power and lost his way. But Armin also accepts that he is at fault because he has blood on his hands, just like Eren. They reconcile and promise to find each other in the afterlife as the vision blurs and Mikasa appears, holding Eren’s lifeless head.
Mikasa leaves to bury Eren, and the Scouts and Marleyans are returned to normal, with the power of the Titans having disappeared from the world. That doesn’t end the conflict between the Eldians and Marleyans, but Armin takes credit for killing Eren and informs everyone that the Titans are gone. At the same moment, Mikasa speaks with Ymir, who all this time was looking for Mikasa because she could do the thing she never could: kill the one she loved.
Three years later, things aren’t looking great on the island of Paradis, which has been taken over by the Jaegerists. But the heroes of the world, Armin, Jean, Connie, Pieck, Annie, and Reiner, are coming to have peace talks. Mikasa has lived a different life, though, staying on the island to mourn the loss of Eren. However, she gets one last moment with her beloved, as a bird appears and wraps her scarf around her one last time, proving that Eren remains with her.
As the credit rolls, a sequence reveals that Mikasa has a family and grows old on the island alongside her friends. That proves that Eren got what he wanted, allowing his friends to live long and happy lives. The same can’t be said for Paradis, though, as after an undisclosed amount of time, the island finds itself in more conflict and is left in ruins.
Some more time passes and a boy finds himself in the overgrown forests of Paradis with his dog. They stumble across a tree that resembles the one that Ymir fell into years and years ago, teasing that history may repeat itself after Attack on Titan‘s complicated ending.
