Summary
The ending of the Attack on Titan anime closely follows the extended ending of the manga, with a few minor changes, which has garnered a similar response from manga readers and anime viewers alike. The Global Alliance, along with the Marlian forces, arrive at Eren with the goal of stopping Eren’s destructive screams, resulting in the loss of many lives but ultimately saving the world. Armin’s compassionate approach helps rally the old Titan shift to counter Eren’s power, leading to a final battle where Eren is killed and the Roaming threat finally ends. However, tension and violence plague the world, leading to an endless cycle of conflict.
Warning: Contains spoilers for Attack on Titan: The Final Chapters, Part 2After 10 years and going through two different anime studios, Attack on Titan’s anime is finally coming to an end. The series ending, for better or worse, was the same as the ending extended to the manga with a few small changes, so people who read the manga and people who only watched the anime might have the same reaction to the conclusion.
After unleashing the full power of the Founder Titan, Eren begins rampaging and sends the Titans out into the world to kill everyone outside of Paradise Island. Although they know that ramming is the only way to ensure the safety of their home and have no better ideas, Armin, Mikasa, Levi and the rest of Eren’s former allies reject genocide as a solution and they team up with some Marlian forces to stop Eren.
Many lives are lost in their journey, especially Hange, but they still reach Eren hoping to stop him and save the world.
How to start the final battle against Eren on Titan
In Attack on Titan Episode 1, “The Battle of Heaven and Earth”, Armin planned to destroy Eren’s Titan form with his transformation, but before he could activate it, the okapi-like Titan swallowed him whole, revealing what Eren had been. He summoned countless past Titan Shifters to fight. This included some of the more famous Titan shifters like Bertholdt, Galliard, and Ymir, and their combined power prevented Peake from blowing Eren’s neck, defeating the Global Alliance as a whole. It looks like everyone is about to die but they are saved at the last minute by Annie and Gabby flying over Falco in their new Titan form.
With the situation more desperate than ever, the Global Alliance reluctantly accepted that they had to kill Eren and split into two teams, one to blow Eren’s neck and the other to rescue Armin. Neither team stands a chance against the ancient Titan mutants. Armin was saddened by the futility of seeing his friends risking their lives for nothing. As Armin does this, he begins to question how he was able to think in the first place, and realizes that he has been transported to the dimension of Traces, where he met Zeke when he built the sand castle.
Armin proves that compassion is the best solution in an attack on Titan
In Episode 2 Attack on Titan’s finale “A Long Dream”, Armin tries to convince Zeke to stop Eren, but Zeke doesn’t see the point of life because he doesn’t see the point. But Armin makes Zeke realize that life is all about the small, meaningless things that give people joy, and this makes Zeke wonder how happy he would be if he continued to play baseball with Xavier. That realization led to the ghosts of the deceased Titan Shifters appearing in the series, and gave Armin and Zeke the strength to withstand Eren’s power and fight him.
With the old Titan Shifter on their side, the Global Alliance regained its power and battled Eren. Mikasa frees Armin from the Okapi-looking Titan, and Zeke allows himself to be killed by Levi, forcing Eren’s Titans to stop screaming. Jean uses that opening to detonate the bomb around Eren’s neck, first expelling the worm-like creature that was connected to Ymir Fritz, and Armin tries to destroy the worm-like creature and Eren with the transformed blast. After Eren and the worm-like creature were dead, it seemed that Rumba’s threat was finally over.
How Attack on Titan ends Eren and Mikasa’s relationship
To keep up the hype, Eren appears in a new Titan form to fight Armin in the final gambit, and the worm-like creature transforms Mikasa, Levi, and the Titan shift into an army of gas that transforms all the Eldians around him. Titans to help him reunite with Eren. As Mikasa struggles with everything and the world goes to war, she has a vision of a world where she and Eren run away and live together in peace. Said vision only strengthens Mikasa’s resolve, and Mikasa cuts Eren’s neck out of his titan form and finally dismisses him with a kiss.
Eren’s death and true plan revealed in Attack on Titan
In the last episode of Attack on Titan’s finale, “To the tree on that mountain”, Eren and Armin meet in the road dimension and Eren explains that he wants Armin and everyone to become heroes by defeating him and gain enough honor to protect Paradise Island. He also reveals that everything was preordained and designed to free Mikasa from her love for King Fritz. Armin berates Eren for playing with Mikasa’s feelings, and Eren admits that he doesn’t want to die, but says it’s too late, especially after talking about how Ramming killed 80% of humanity off the island.
Armin was terrified by all of this, and especially after trying countless different scenarios, Eren said that this was the only way to go. Armin calls out Eren’s plan on how it’s only going to make things worse, and Eren says it’s inevitable because he was an idiot and couldn’t make something different happen. In a final act of compassion, Armin takes it upon himself to worry Eren to the outside world in the first place, saying that they’ll be together again in Hell, and after hugging him one last time, Armin snaps back to reality to tearfully reaffirm it. Death.
This final interaction between Eren and Armin is very different from how it went in the manga, where Eren never admits his mistake and never thanks Armin for his sacrifice.
Attack on Titan’s finale and true meaning explained.
With Eren’s death and destruction of the worm-like creature, not only did Ramming end, but all of the Titan’s powers ceased to exist, turning all Eldeans into normal humans. Three years later, tensions are still high in all corners of the world, with the Yeagerists becoming more radical and the outside world still distrustful of Eldian. When Armin and everyone else go to the peace meeting, they realize that there are many reasons why they hate them, but despite this, Armin believes that if they have the chance to talk, there is still a chance they can come to an understanding.
Unfortunately, as seen in the end credits, Armin’s plans will not come true as Paradise Island will fall into ruins at some point in the future. It is unknown how much time has passed or if the outside world is truly responsible, but it still shows that despite Eren and Armin’s best efforts, the cycle of violence has not stopped. The final scene is when a boy in Paradise Lost finds a tree named Eren buried, which now resembles the tree where Ymir Fritz gained her Titan powers, revealing that he also gains Titan powers.
If the titan powers can really come back, the war will probably never end, but it is unknown what the current state of the world is, and if it is a world without violence, the new titan powers can use it as a force. Good, or simply never used. It’s all up to interpretation, and that may have been intentional because, for better or worse, all of the characters he knows end up living the rest of their lives in peace with them, and that’s one of the few bright spots on Striker. Titan’s Tragic End.
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