Recap / Attack on Titan S4E29-31: The Final Chapters, Part One

Adapted from: Chapters 1,131-134

Chapter 1: The Rumbling

Ramzi shows his friend Halil a stash of money he had stolen in the hopes of getting the people in their refugee camp a better place to live. Halil is concerned, with Ramzi having already had his right arm smashed for stealing. Ramzi insists that someone has to do it, if they want to escape the tents. Suddenly they see people fleeing the city. Birds fly off in panic. And the ground beneath their feet... is Rumbling. Out in the distance, they see a cloud of steam covering the nearby city. And below it, are hundreds of thousands of Colossal Titans.

Eren reflects on the first time he visited Liberio. Back then, thanks to his future memories, he already knew he was destined to bring about the Rumbling and kill all of these people. While he accepts his grim duty, he's not happy about it. Even knowing that the Eldians of Paradis make up only a small fraction of the global population, and eliminating them would end the Titan problem, he cannot accept the idea of letting the Eldians be exterminated. Then he finds Ramzi getting beaten up by some thugs in an alley. Eren beats them up and rescues the boy, although wondering to himself if he has any right to act like a hero given what he's planning to do. He takes the boy back to his refugee camp, and breaks down in tears, apologizing for what's about to happen. In the present, the Titans completely obliterate Liberio, Halil is killed in the chaos, and Ramzi gets crushed under a Titan's foot.

Other people attempting to flee don't fare much better; most end up trampled, but some are killed in human stampedes, some are burned alive by the Titans' body heat, some are struck by flying rubble, and one man is shown blowing his brains out because at least that's an immediate death. Some reach an evacuation train, but due to limited space and the Advancing Wall of Doom rapidly approaching them, boarding is chaotic at best. As for Grisha's parents, they've been abandoned in a prison cell and can do nothing but await their fate at the hands of their own grandson.

But Eren notices none of this. All he can think of is the world that he never got to see his whole life. The world that was kept from him by the massive walls that surrounded his home. Now he is free to see the whole world in all its glory... as his army of the very Titans that once made up those walls reduces it all to a blank plain.

In the Paths, Eren in a younger form asks the present-day Armin what he thinks.

Armin wakes up in the real world as Annie asks him why he kept speaking to her all those times while she was in the crystal. Annie suggests it's because Armin is simply a good person, but Armin says he has killed too many people to call himself that. Annie asks if the world outside the walls wasn't what they thought it was. Armin agrees that it was not, yet still, he believes there is something worth fighting for, even if he can't see it yet. At that moment a bird eyes Armin curiously.

The group arrives at Odiha, which is completely deserted, save for some stray wildlife; the inhabitants have all fled further south. The Alliance wastes no time bringing in the flying boat. The explosives are still attached, and Armin suggests they can use them in the coming battle. The mechanics begin prepping the boat for takeoff. Mikasa tells Annie to practice with the new ODM gear, but Annie says she's sitting out the fight, as she doesn't care anymore. Mikasa realizes, with a mixture of shock and disbelief that Annie has a crush on Armin, but Annie remains in denial about it. Mikasa is no better, refusing to give up on Eren, despite the fact that she isn't even wearing her... his scarf.

Falco wakes up to the devastating news that Liberio has been destroyed and his parents are likely dead. He does not take this well. Levi finally recovers enough to stand on his own, even at Armin's urging for him to rest. Yelena suggests Eren's next target will probably be Fort Salta as she told him about it along with Floch when they were planning to unleash the Rumbling on a limited scale event. Yelena believes that after Eren has wiped out Liberio, he'll want to eliminate the threat the airships might pose. She also asks the Alliance to acknowledge that Zeke's euthanization plan was the only solution to save the world. Hange does not deny this, as they couldn't help Eren find any solution beyond the genocide of the Eldians, or the eradication of the human race. They are powerless.

As the sun rises, the plane is just about ready; all that's left is to fuel it. There a few other affairs to take care off; Reiner asks Annie to take Falco and Gabi with her as he'd like to keep them out of harm's way. The two make peace with each other and bid farewell. The Levi Squad minus Levi wishes her good luck, though Jean wishes she was coming. Levi, for his part, is struggling to grip the triggers on his ODM gear, having only two fingers on his right hand.

A very drenched Floch stumbles in and shoots it. Mikasa fires an ODM hook through his neck. As he dies, he begs them not to stop Eren, still believing he's Paradis's only hope. He's punctured the fuel tank, and they won't be able to take off until it's fixed. But they're out of time. The Rumbling is here!

Hange places Armin in command of the Scout Regiment and takes off in ODM gear to hold off the Titans. Hange takes out several Titans before being incinerated by the extreme heat they're emitting. But it is enough, as the group manages to repair the boat and take off.

Hange wakes up in the afterlife, greeted by fallen comrades.

Chapter 2: Sinners

Aboard the flying boat, the group discuss battle plans. Armin wonders why Eren has not taken away their Titan powers. Suddenly, Eren summons them all into the Paths. Armin begs Eren to hear them out, saying he has already done enough damage to ensure Paradis will be safe for a long time and the people remaining might be willing to accept a peace treaty. Eren tells them flat out that he has no intention of stopping the Rumbling, as he won't take any chances with Paradis's future. He then says that while he knows he is taking away the world's freedom, he won't take away theirs. As they hold different unbreakable convictions, they will soon have no choice but to fight. He tells them that there is nothing to discuss; if they want to stop the Rumbling, they will have to kill him, and they are free to do so. They see that Eren is now in his younger form, with Ymir at his side.

Falco tells Annie that he had a dream of flying, and thinks he inherited something from Zeke's spinal fluid, and thinks his Titan might be able to fly.

A train carrying people fleeing from Liberio arrives at Fort Salta, where they hope to escape on a plane, only to find that all the airships there have taken off and are flying toward the Titans. The fort commander announces that the hatred of the Eldians they have been taught all their lives to cultivate has now created the monster that is coming to destroy them, and if he had a second chance, he would not make that mistake again. The airships launch a bombing raid upon the Titans.

But it's no use. The Beast Titan emerges from the Founding Titan's body, and starts throwing rocks at the airships, taking them all out. The people at Fort Salta watch in horror and despair as their seeming last hope is demolished.

Then the flying boat arrives. The Scouts and Warriors jump out, Reiner and Pieck transform, and Reiner grabs the Beast Titan. Armin declares that when they pull him out of his Titan, he will ask him:

"What do you really mean when you say you're free?".

Tropes:

• Adaptational Late Appearance: Eren's dream where a mysterious girl tells him that she will see him later and the scene where Mikasa asks him why he is crying after he wakes up is adapted into the anime in this episode as a flashback, while in the manga, this is one of the first scenes of the first chapter.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The anime adds a few scenes of the Rumbling in progress, including how badly the population is taking it.
  • The anime also answers the question as to what happened to Grisha Yeager's parents: they were locked up because of Zeke's betrayal and left behind when the Eldians and Marleyans in Liberio ran for Fort Salta. They embrace each other before being crushed by the advance of the Colossal Titans, with Mrs. Yeager saying that this is repentance for their sins.
• Adapted Out: The episode adapts the entirety of Volume 33, but Historia giving birth, the Rumbling taking place in other parts of the world, and the scene where a crowd of people being pushed off of a cliff by the Rumbling try to save an infant. Thankfully enough, these were instead added in the following episode.
• Admiring the Abomination: Before attacking the advancing Wall Titans, Hange takes one last moment to gush over them.
  Hange: Wow... Titans truly are the most marvelous creatures!
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite the irredeemably evil things Floch has done as Eren's right hand man his death is treated with a somber light, with his former comrades shocked that he dragged himself all the way from the port in Paradis to there. His last words, after having his throat pierced by Mikasa's hook, is to beg them not to kill Eren as his devil is their last hope, with Hange closing his eyes afterwards.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Armin intends to give one to Eren after they've defeated him and dragged him out of the Founding Titan.
  Armin: Eren. You said there was nothing to say, but you were wrong. I've got a question, and you will answer it. What do you really mean when you say you're free?
• Afterlife Welcome: After their Heroic Sacrifice, Hange is greeted by Erwin, Moblit, and all of their other friends and companions who had fallen along the way.
  Erwin: It's tough. There's time now. We can talk about it.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: One man caught in the crossfire of the Rumbling chooses to shoot himself in the head rather than being trampled by the Colossal Titans.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just as the Beast Titan singlehandedly destroys Fort Salta's air fleet, the Alliance make their move to drop on Eren, with Reiner transforming to tackle the Beast Titan.
• Cliffhanger: The episode ends with The Alliance making it to Eren and preparing to go to battle to end the Rumbling once and for all.
• Cryptic Conversation: This episode features a flashback of a dream Eren had before the fall of Wall Maria, where a girl that ressembles Mikasa tells him "See you later, Eren.". The lack of context for this line makes it practically impossible to figure out what she meant by saying this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The air fleet at Fort Salta is utterly wiped out by the Beast Titan.
• Defiant to the End: Critically injured and water logged after the battle at the port, Floch nonetheless gathers the last of his strength to try to kill the Alliance before he is finally killed by Mikasa with a hook to the throat. While his gunshots are sporadic, he did manage to hit the fuel tank of the flying boat, delaying their flight to Eren and requiring that Hange sacrifice their life to buy the Alliance time.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • To cope with the horrors of the Rumbling, Eren is imagining himself as a child soaring through the sky, the steam of the Colossal Titans resembling massive clouds, before saying "so this is freedom!" He asks Armin what he thinks, and we cut to the still-adult Armin looking in horror.
  • In a flashback, Eren dreams with a girl telling him that she will see him later. She speaks very gently and yet, when Eren wakes up, he's crying, implying that there's more to this dream than it seems.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite how far Eren has gone, and the fact that he is willingly taking away the worlds freedoms by murdering them, Eren tells his friends that he won't take away their freedoms by using his Founding Titan powers to strip from them their free will and abilities. Eren tells them they are free to try and stop the Rumbling, just as he is free to continue his rampage, and warns them that, if they come after him, it will be for a fight.
• Extra-Long Episode: This episode is one hour long, composing the entirety of Volume 33 of the manga.
• Fantastic Racism: Invoked at the beginning of the episode when a Mid-East Alliance refugee, upon seeing the titans approaching from all sides, wonders if the Marleyans all fled without bothering to warn them.
• Friendship Moment:
  • Before they go their separate ways, Reiner apologizes to Annie for dragging her and Bertolt on their mission after Marcel died and that he should have taken responsibility. Annie, after telling Reiner she thought about killing him but could never go through with it, then smiles and hugs Reiner wishing him luck on the mission.
  • While on the flying boat Jean and Connie bury the hatchet with Reiner now that they realise how he and the others must have felt betraying people they thought of as friends in order to save the world. Reiner even gets to revert back to a bit of his former Big Brother Mentor role by telling Connie that, even if he can't forgive himself for what he's done, he still wants to save the people around the world and encourages him to do the same.
• A Good Way to Die: Before going off to their Heroic Sacrifice, Hange tells Levi that they're "giddy with the desire to make a supremely cool exit."
• Grand Finale: The first half of two Extra Long Episodes that serve as the conclusion for Attack on Titan.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Hange fights the Wall Titans to buy the group enough time to repair the flying boat and take off, and goes out in a literal blaze of glory.
• Heel Realization:
  • Eren has this in the flashback. After struggling to come with grips with his future annihilation of humanity and debating to himself why he will do the Rumbling, he comes across Ramzi being assaulted by some thugs. Despite knowing that he has no right to try to save him since he'll end up killing the boy himself, he does so anyway. Eren breaks down crying and apologizing that he's going to kill everyone because deep down, he was disappointed that humanity existed beyond the Walls and he wished for them all to disappear.
  • Jean and Connie have one on the way to Fort Salta noting that, in trying to do what they thought was right, they killed several of their former friends and comrades while being lambasted as traitors. Connie realises that this must have been what Reiner and the others felt like while they infiltrated the Walls, and Jean tells Reiner that he never had any right to judge him since he's performed actions just as bad.
  • The Marleyan commander in charge of Fort Salta, and the rest of the assembled Marleyans and Eldians, realise that by fostering their hatred and inadequacies upon the so called "island devil's" their very hatred has been reflected back to them in the form of Eren who now seeks to destroy them all. Many of the people assembled there burst into tears and the commander promises that, if the world survives, he won't make the same mistake again.
• Hold the Line: Hange, knowing full well that they can't kill all of the Titans, takes as many down with them as possible in order to delay the Rumbling long enough for the flying boat and the Hizuruan ship to leave port.
• Hypocrisy Nod:
  • In a flashback to years prior, Eren admits to himself that it would be extremely hypocritical for him to save Ramzi, a boy he saw in his future memories, from a band of angry merchants, since the boy will die a much more horrific death in the Rumbling. Despite this, Eren still rescues him, berating himself for being like Reiner, a "half-assed piece of shit," but even worse.
  • When Eren confronts the alliance in the Paths he acknowledges that he is stealing the freedoms of the people around the world by killing them with the Rumbling, but tells them that he won't use the Founding Titan to take their freedoms away.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Armin doesn't think he can be considered a good person anymore, as he has killed too many people.
• It Has Been an Honour:
  • Annie and Reiner reconcile over the latter's decision to continue the initial mission and Annie hugs him, wishing Reiner luck, and calling him sir.
  • Levi gives a subdued, though no less heartfelt, one to Hange telling them to "dedicate your heart". Hange even notes that it is the first time they've ever heard him say that.
• It's All About Me: A mob of desperate people try to steal a man's car to get away from the Rumbling, only for all of them to get crushed in a matter of seconds.
• Man on Fire: The Titans' extreme body heat leads to some unlucky people burning alive. One shot shows a crowd of carbonized people screaming and writhing in agony, and Hange's efforts to buy the flying boat time to take off ultimately end in them bursting into flames.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The alliance has this reaction when they feel the Rumbling coming for them right after Floch damaged the fuel tank of the flying boat, necessitating immediate repairs before they can take off.
• More Expendable Than You: With the Rumbling close at hand Armin realises that someone has to stay behind to hold off the Titans long enough for the flying boat to leave port. Armin and Reiner both volunteer themselves but Hange tells them they are both too important for the fight ahead and goes out themselves to hold the hoard off.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Karina realises how much of a terrible mother she has been to Reiner by giving birth to him just so she could get revenge on his father. She even notes that she hasn't done one motherly thing for him his whole life.
• Not Quite Dead:
  • It turns out that Mr. Leonhart and the rest of the residents of Liberio, Eldian and Marleyan alike, managed to board a train to Ford Salta and got away before the destruction of the Rumbling reached them.
  • In the last episode he appeared in, Floch fell into the sea after getting shot by Gabi. Turns out he survived and clung to the boat in order to try and kill as many members of the Alliance as he could.
• Redemption Rejection: After being dragged into the Paths Eren's friends plead with him to stop his plan before he completely destroys the world. Eren makes it clear that he has no intention of stopping until everything outside of Paradis is dead and, if the alliance still wants to stop him, they will inevitably be driven into conflict with each other.
• Scenery Gorn: The destruction of Liberio is shown in all its glory. We get to watch Ramzi getting crushed under a Titan's foot.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When a man that is running away from the Rumbling accidentally pushes Ramzi and makes him drop all of his money, Halil goes back to catch the coins instead of running away, making his brother go back for him too. However, in this case, not going back for the money and just running wouldn't have increased the two brothers' chances at surviving.
  • The men that are apparently trying to rob a bank while everyone runs away, only to get crushed too. Once again, they probably would have ended up dead either way.
• Tears of Remorse: In the flashback, Eren cries and apologizes in front of a confused Ramzi, knowing thanks to his memories that he will eventually murder him and the rest of the world.
• Tempting Fate: While final preparations are being completed for the flying boat Onyankapon breathes a sigh of relieve noting that they will be able to just miss the Rumbling. Then Floch shows up and shoots several holes in the fuel tank, delaying the alliance just as the Rumbling arrives.
• Would Hurt a Child: In order to show that Eren will not stop his indiscriminate murder of the world, the first scene of the episode shows Ramzi and his brother being crushed by the marching Wall Titans, with Ramzi's head graphically being crushed in slow motion to emphasize the point.
• You Are in Command Now: Hange places Armin in command of the Scout Regiment right before their Heroic Sacrifice.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Hange holds off the Wall Titans just long enough for the others to take off.