- Adapted from: Chapters 135-139
Chapter 3: The Battle of Heaven and Earth
In the past, Ymir looks at a group of pigs from in a cage. She quietly opens the door to the cage and walks away with a slight smile on her face.
In the present, Ymir watches the Alliance make landfall on Eren's back. The Beast Titan that Reiner ripped from the Founder is merely a hardened shell; they conclude that Zeke is hiding somewhere within the mass of bones that makes up Eren's body. That's a lot of bones. And every second that passes, more people will die. Armin tells everyone to get as far away as possible as he prepares to become the Colossal Titan. He tries to reassure Mikasa that Eren is likely prepared to take the explosion, but he also resigns himself to the fact that he has to be ready to give up on saving Eren or won't be able to save anyone. This is what Erwin Smith taught him and it's something he has understood for a long time now.
Unfortunately Armin is a little too focused on past thoughts to realize what's right behind him. An absurdly long tongue wraps around him and jams itself into his mouth, preventing him from being able to breathe much less bite. That tongue is attached a weird-pig titan, another shell summoned from seemingly nowhere. Before the Alliance can react, Armin is sucked into the pig's maw and it dashes off to the back of Eren's Titan
The rest of the Alliance are surrounded by an army of Titans comprised of Titan Shifters, all bearing unique forms; animals soldiers, mixes of the two and more. Pieck theorizes that Eren has the ability to summon the previous shifters of the past, and since they are just shells, he can do over and over again.
At Fort Salta, the survivors pull Onyankopon from the wreckage of the flying boat. Mr Leonhardt asks him if Annie is still alive, but he is still too dazed to respond.
Atop the Attack Titan, the Alliance has no idea how to save Armin or find Zeke; they could be anywhere within the giant mass of bones. Pieck decides to take matters into her own hands- she never really knew Eren anyway- and sets the explosives around the Final Titan's spine and nape. Mikasa begs for to stop but the Warrior is adamant: "This nightmare ends right now!" Before Pieck can push the lever down, she is stabbed by Lara Tybur's War Hammer Titan. Without either of their trump cards, the Alliance is forced to fight simply for their own survival. Levi show's he's still the best even with one less eye and three fingers. He slices up the Shifters left and right and even manages to fend off Galliard's claws. Mikasa is no slouch herself, using both her Thunder Spears and Blades to eliminate all her opponents. Reiner fights like a man possessed, smashing any Titan foolish enough to challenge him, even grabbing their weapons and using them for his own.
As Armin begins to pass out, Bertolhdt appears before him. He says nothing, but a single tear trails down his face. Back in reality, the Colossal Titan appears from above and snatches Reiner before he can react. The survivors atop Fort Salta watch grimly as the Colossal Titan takes a bite of the Armored Titan... and throws his headless body to the ground. Karina seeks to her knees in grief. But Reiner, having survived much worse, is not about to leave the story now. Jean manages to scoop him out of the nape seconds before Bertholdt chomps down, leaving the two now hanging perilously from the spinal cord.
Just when all seems lost, the Alliance is saved by Falco, who discovered how to make his Jaw Titan fly. With Gabi and Annie in tow, the Alliance regroup and formulate a new plan: Reiner, Pieck, and Jean focus on detonating the explosives to destroy the Final Titan; Annie, Connie, and Mikasa rescue Armin; and Falco circles the Final Titan with Gabi and Levi to locate Zeke. Levi reminisces on the vow he swore to Erwin and the lives lost since then, deciding that all of this destruction was not what his comrades died for, and reaffirming that he doesn’t regret his choice not to bring Erwin back into this hell, especially now that the future is in Armin’s hands.
Meanwhile, the Rumbling takes lives throughout the world, and the Marleyans and Eldians at Fort Salta come into conflict yet again. The last we see of them, they seemingly gun down Annie's father.
Armin awakens in a void before he realizes he is neither dead nor dreaming, but in the Eldians' Paths. Now seeing the desert landscape, he stumbles upon Zeke Yeager, who has apparently accepted the fate of the world.
Chapter 4: A Long Dream
Armin and Zeke discuss the meaning of life. While Zeke believes it's better for humanity to die and never be born, Armin appeals to the smaller, peaceful moments in life, like Armin running with Eren and Mikasa towards that tree or Zeke playing catch with Ksaver, which reignites his drive to stop the Rumbling. The two call on the spirits of Ksaver, Grisha, Bertholdt, the Galliard brothers, and Ymir of the 104th to help them in reality. Their Titans manifest and help the Alliance achieve their goals; Armin is rescued and Jean sets off the explosives, revealing the source of all living matter. Zeke finally appears from the bones of Eren’s Titan and allows Levi to decapitate him, finally stopping the Rumbling.
The rest of the Alliance fly to Fort Salta and Reiner holds the organism down so Armin can kill both Eren and the organism with his Colossal Titan transformation. The Marleyans and Eldians have also come to an understanding, with Secretary Mueller promising to Annie's father that they will not make the same mistakes again. Celebrations are cut short, however, when the source of all living matter survives and releases a gas that Connie recognizes as the gas used to transform his mother into a Titan. The still living Eren re-emerges as a hybrid of the Colossal and Attack Titans. Eldians who are not Titan Shifters or Ackermans transform into Titans and immediately swarm to protect the organism while Armin battles Eren his best friend.
In the midst of all the stress and certain doom, Mikasa's headache takes her to a fantasy realm where she and Eren ran away together in Marley and they’ve lived out the remainder of Eren’s life in a cabin in solitude. This Eren tells Mikasa to throw away the scarf and forget about him once he dies. This finally gives Mikasa the resolve to kill him and put an end to this. She wraps her scarf around her neck, apologizing to Eren because she has no intention of forgetting him. With Armin and Levi's help, she enters the mouth of Eren's Titan, where Eren's real head resides, and decapitates him. In both the fantasy and in reality, Mikasa kisses Eren goodbye while the Founder Ymir looks on.
Final Chapter: Toward the Tree on That Hill
In a conversation in the Paths, Eren tells Armin that everything he did, including antagonizing him and Mikasa at the restaurant, was all a part of a plan to make Armin and the Alliance heroes. Eren would become the Devil of Paradis and the Alliance would become heroes for defying the island and stopping the Rumbling. Armin rejects this plan, saying they never asked to become heroes. Eren then takes Armin to the fantastic landscapes that they've always dreamed about as he tells him about the Founder Ymir.
Ymir had grown to love King Fritz in spite of the way he treated her. She suffered for being tied to his will long after he had perished, and searched for someone to free her from her agony. That person was Mikasa. Eren does not know what Mikasa will do, but he does know the result of her choice. Eren moved towards this outcome, despite it meaning he would massacre humanity and put the people he tried to protect in danger. The Founder's power had left Eren unable to tell past from future, and while trying to save a young Bertolt, he directed the Smiling Titan towards his mother that fateful day. Armin takes his hand and they go to the ocean they wanted to see long ago.
While they are gazing at the sights, Armin takes Eren to task for how he treated Mikasa. Eren breaks down and cries—he wants to be with Mikasa and all of his friends and doesn't want to die, but he knows that no one will forgive him for what he's done. The ocean turns into the bloodied wasteland that the Rumbling makes of the world as Eren tells Armin that by the time they stop him, he will kill eighty percent of humanity. Armin, horrified, demands that he stop, but Eren tells him it's useless—the future has been determined. Armin cries that this makes everything they did worthless, as the only lesson people will learn is that it is kill or be killed. When he asks Eren if he truly did it all for them, Eren answers no: he did it to flatten the world and make it the world he saw in Armin's book. He realizes that this outcome happened because he is an idiot who was given far too much power. Despite everything, Armin comes to empathize with Eren. Armin thanks him for showing him the world outside of the walls and promises that they will bear the sins of the Rumbling together; when Armin too passes, they will be together in hell as repentance. They share one last embrace as Eren wipes Armin's memories of this encounter. Armin is sent back to reality, where he was talking to Annie on the boat to Fort Salta.
It's only after Mikasa killed Eren that Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, Annie, and Reiner remember their last conversations with Eren, as well as the result of Mikasa's choice: the erasure of the Power of the Titans. As Armin and Mikasa mourn Eren's death, the transformed Eldians are restored to normal and the source of all living matter and the Colossal Titans reduced to mist. The Alliance reunite with their families; Levi gets a final salute from the spirits of the Survey Corps, and Jean and Connie a salute from Sasha; and Mikasa promises to take Eren's head and bury him under his favorite tree in Shiganshina. Suddenly, they are held at gunpoint by the traumatized Marleyans. Mueller demands to know whether they have the ability to transform into titans. Armin declares that their vulnerability is proof of their humanity, and introduces himself as an Eldian from Paradis Island, and the man who killed Eren Yeager, the Attack Titan. Afterwards, Mikasa has a final talk with the Founder Ymir. Mikasa says she understands the hell she went through for 2,000 years, but it's thanks to her that Mikasa is here and alive today, for which she is thankful for. As Ymir imagines a world where she let King Fritz die to be with her daughters, Ymir passes on as well, finally content.
Three years have passed, and Armin, Jean, Connie, Reiner, Annie, and Pieck are the ambassadors of the outside world, returning to Paradis Island in hopes of getting the island to come to peace. However, Paradis has been fully radicalized by the Yeagerists, who build an army to finish what Eren started. While they are pessimistic about their chances of success, the ambassadors believe that the island will listen to their story: about how people who tried to kill each other for so long have come together to advocate for peace.
Mikasa waits under the tree on that hill, excited for her friends to come and visit Eren one last time. She reminisces about their time as children and cries, but a bird helps wrap her scarf around her. Mikasa believes that Eren is still watching over her, and thanks him for wrapping the scarf.
Mikasa lives a long life, settling down and raising a family, who come with her to pay respects to Eren's grave. After she dies peacefully of old age, keeping Eren's scarf with her to the grave, Shiganshina grows in size, becoming a modern 21st century city, and then a futuristic city with gargantuan skyscrapers. However, an unspecified war reduces the advanced Shiganshina District into ruin. Farther into the future, a child and their dog explore the ruins and comes across the tree where Eren was buried, which has grown to resemble the tree that housed the source of all living matter. The two approach the tree...
- Zero-Approval Gambit: While in the Paths, Eren tells Armin that his goal all along was to get far enough with the Rumbling before his friends stopped him. The world would be too weak to fight back, while the Alliance would be heroes for stopping Eren and use that leverage to broker peace. However, Armin informs Eren of how terrible a plan that is and that he hoisted a role onto them they didn't want without even asking or informing them of what he's doing. Eren later admits that it wasn't his plan at all, and that he was committed to the Rumbling for a far more selfish reason. Regardless, Armin and the Alliance take up the role as heroes, and it's implied that they succeed in their efforts, resulting in a Paradis Island that is able to grow and expand.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Armin is far more angered with Eren revealing that he kills 80% of humanity than in the manga. Eren also harbors greater guilt over his actions and blames himself for the deaths of Sasha and Hange and the Alliance and the Yeagerists coming to blows, when he never acknowledged them in the source material.
- Adaptational Badass: Armin puts up a better fight as a Colossal Titan against Eren in the anime.
- Adaptation Distillation: The anime's version of the ending includes the extra pages from Volume 34 as well as a few anime-original scenes.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: 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, all of which appeared in Volume 33, were instead added in this episode even though the entirety of the aforementioned volume was adapted in the previous episode.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The origins of the creature are only alluded to in the manga when Zeke talks about the origin of life on earth and we see images of Hallucigenia (which it somewhat resembles). In the anime, when Zeke is talking about the same thing, we appear to see the creature forming in the primordial sea. Indicating that, even if it’s not the origin of all life on earth or the embodiment of life itself, it is at the very least one of if not the first life form to come into existence.
- There are more action scenes in the anime; in particular, Grisha and Xsaver's titan forms get a small scene, when they otherwise only helped Armin prepare to transform.
- Eren and Armin's final conversation in the Paths is greatly expanded upon. In particular, Eren tells Armin that he kills 80% of humanity at the end of the conversation, rather than the beginning, causing Armin to become much more furious with him. Themes and ideas that were ambiguous or subtle in the original manga are made explicitly clear in the anime, such as Eren's true motivations. Instead of Armin being sympathetic towards Eren for committing mass murder for the sake of his friends, he instead tells him that they'll shoulder the burden of Eren's sins together and meet up in hell, if it exists.
- Yelena appears in the farming scene after the three-year timeskip, helping rebuilding the outside world. In the manga, her fate is not elaborated at all.
- The Distant Finale epilogue introduced in the volume release of the final chapter is expanded on, showing that Paradis grew farther into a futuristic city before it is bombed to ruins in a war. The song that plays during this scene also hints at a few things too.
- The title itself implies that the war and the boy finding the tree takes place between 2,000 and 20,000 years after the ending.
- The song is implied to be from Erens POV revealing some form of continued existence after his death.
- The verse that plays during the bombings also implies that the war that destroyed Paradis was a global war that “reset” all of humanity, not just the island.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the manga, Gabi speculates that the creature that leaped out of Eren's body and attached to his head in Paradis is the source of the Power of the Titans, and that it must be destroyed along with Eren to stop the Rumbling. The anime removes this, giving less context to what the organism is or why the Alliance needed to destroy both it and Eren.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: One made by the anime: in Eren's final conversation with Armin, he blames himself for the deaths of some of their friends, including Hange. However, he pulled Armin from when the Alliance is on the boat to Odiha, which is before Hange sacrifices themself to allow the flying boat to take off, meaning that to Armin, they haven’t died yet. Despite this, Armin has no reaction to knowing that Hange is also fated to die.
- Adapted Out:
- In the anime, Connie doesn't mention Historia using her influence to protect his and Jean's families from Yeagerists who would commit Revenge by Proxy.
- The scene with Falco, Gabi, Levi, and Onyankopon in a city either untouched or rebuilt out of the Rumbling is replaced with them farming and helping survivors of the Rumbling. As a result, it gives the implication that the world has yet to fully recover after the Rumbling.
- In the final episode of the televised version of the specials, the scene where the Paradis evolves before it is bombed and another where the child and the dog find the gigantic tree aren't shown at all.
- Aesop Amnesia: After the battle, Mueller, the same man who gave that speech denouncing the hatred of the Eldians and vowing never to make that mistake again, makes that mistake again by having all his soldiers hold the surviving Eldians at gunpoint and demanding immediate proof that the power of the Titans is gone, and not being willing to wait for biological testing. Armin has to talk some sense into him. Justified, as right after he promised to work together with the Eldians, they all suddenly transformed into titans in front of them.
- Afterlife Welcome: Subverted. Much like with Hange, Levi sees the ghosts of fallen comrades and briefly thinks he's getting this. Then the ghosts fade away, leaving him there, showing that he survived.
- Ambiguous Ending: In the epilogue, we witness Shiganshina District grow over time into a futuristic metropolis before being blasted to oblivion. Even later, a child and their dog exploring the ruins come across the tree Eren was buried under, which became identical to the tree where Ymir Fritz discovered the mysterious organism. This ending leaves the audience with a number of questions:
- Who attacked Shiganshina and why?
- Is the rest of Paradis Island destroyed, and what is the state of the outside world?
- Is the child a descendent of the Paradisians, or are they a part of group of new settlers?
- Did the organism survive in Eren's head, and will it grant the child the Power of the Titans? The circumstances of the child finding the tree is different from Ymir's, so will this result in a better or worse outcome than before?
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Jean, Connie, Gabi and the families of the Warriors are all exposed to the gas from the mysterious organism, turning into titans under its control. They all are restored when Eren is killed.
- Apocalypse How:
- Class 1. The Rumbling kills eighty percent of humanity and roughly as many animals and plant life outside of Paradis Island, along with reducing everything in the Wall Titans' way into rubble. Eren tells Armin that it brought civilization down to Paradis’ level.
- Between 2,000 and 20,000 years after the ending, Shiganshina is bombed into ruins, making it a Class 0. It’s ambiguous if the rest of island was destroyed the same way. The lyrics to “To You, 2,000... or 20,000 Years From Now” implies that a global war took place that “reset” humanity to zero, making this another Class 1 at most, though the child having modern survival gear indicates that humanity recovers.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Heavily implied to be what had happened to Eren after Mikasa killed him, as the bird that fixes Mikasa’s scarf is outright stated to be connected to him in some way, while the song that plays during The Stinger is heavily implied to be from his POV, addressing the boy while claiming to be someone that had watched over the world from within the tree.
- Backup from Otherworld: Armin and Zeke meet Ksaver, Grisha, Kruger, Bertholdt, Marcel, Porco, and 104th Ymir in the Paths and convince them to help. They all possess their Titan forms to join the fight against the past Titan Shifters.
- Badass Boast: Mikasa, to the titans summoned by Eren, although she's interrupted by Annie when she arrives with Falco and Gabi Just in Time to save Levi, Connie, Jean and Reiner.Mikasa: Bring it on! I'm stronger than any of you, got it?! So you'd better come at me at once, 'cuz no matter how-Annie, ridding Falco's Titan's back: You're kinda in the way, Mikasa!
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, Eren has gotten everything he wanted for everybody except himself. He's gotten his revenge against the rest of the world, ensured Paradis will be safe and at peace for centuries, shown the world undeniable proof of the existence of heroic Eldians, and given all his surviving friends the chance to live long, peaceful lives in a world free of Titans. And all it cost him was his own life, and the lives of Sasha, Hange, Floch, and a bunch of his disciples who the Alliance had to kill.
- Belated Happy Ending: The anime adds an additional scene to the epilogue of the Alliance visiting Eren's grave; this and the fact that Paradis didn't see war until they've long died of old age indicates that they and Paradis were able to come to an understanding.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Just as hope seems lost for the Alliance, Falco in his flying Jaws Titan swoops into rescue them. With Annie, Falco, and Gabi as support, they formulate a new plan to destroy the Final Titan and save Armin.
- Bertolt, 104th Ymir, Grisha Yeager, Eren Kruger, the Galliard brothers, and Tom Xsaver awaken enough of their personality in the facsimile titan forms to help the Alliance save the day.
- Big "NO!": Pieck does this while being taken away from her father on Falco’s Titan, unwilling to leave him behind to be titanized.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Alliance is able to stop the Rumbling, but not before 80% of humanity, as well as Eren Yeager, are dead. The power of the titans is removed from the world, turning the transformed Eldians at Fort Salta back to human. Three years later, Armin and the Alliance become ambassadors for the outside world to convince Paradis, now fully radicalized into a military state bent on finishing what Eren started, to a peace treaty, with Historia alone giving them hope that their dire situation will pan out. Meanwhile, Gabi, Falco, Levi, Onyankopon, and a guilty Yelena lead efforts to restore the outside world. Years later and Mikasa lives peacefully to old age, after which Paradis expands into a modern city and then a futuristic city, but is eventually bombed to hell in a war. Much later, a child and their dog come across the tree Eren was buried under, which has grown into a tree very similar to what Ymir Fritz fell into.
- Book Ends: At the start of the series, when we’re first introduced to Eren, he’s shown to be under a tree waking up from a nap. After his death, Mikasa buries his head under the same tree and it’s showcased throughout the credits and Paradis’ destruction. The final shot of the series then shows the boy and the dog about to enter the tree, which is now similar to the one Ymir found all those years ago.
- Brought Down to Normal: With Eren's death, the Power of the Titans is gone from the world, removing the Titan Shifters of their powers (and the Curse of Ymir) and turning all Pure Titans back to human.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: After Eren survives his Final Titan's destruction, he emerges as a Colossal/Attack Titan hybrid. While this form is able to defeat Armin's Colossal Titan, Mikasa manages to enter the titan and decapitate Eren, finishing him off for good.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Alliance's first fight with the Past Titans goes awry, with Pieck failing to detonate the bomb and Reiner forced out of his Armored Titan and his ODM gear malfunctioning. Only the timely arrival of Falco in a flying Jaws Titan form saves them.
- Darkest Hour: The Alliance's attempt to kill Eren failed, as he transforms into a Colossal/Attack Titan hybrid. The "source of all life" releases a gas that causes every Eldian who isn't a Titan Shifter or an Ackerman into titans. This army overwhelms the Titan Shifters on the ground, while Armin in his Colossal Titan form engages with Eren. It's only when Mikasa finds the resolve to kill Eren—and locate his head's position—that she is able to break into Eren's titan and kill him for good.
- Deliberately Monochrome: While the Rumbling is taking lives all over the world, we see a crowd of people trying to escape to a cliff. A mother tries to save her baby by passing it onto others; she and the baby are the only ones in color. When Zeke is killed and the Rumbling is stopped, color returns to the entire crowd.
- Despair Event Horizon: Upon seeing the deformed effigies of Connie, Gabi, Jean and even his own mother amidst the crowd of Titans tearing him apart, Reiner well and truly hits his breaking point.Reiner: WHEN WILL OUR TORMENT END??
- Distant Finale: The end credits show Paradis after the Battle of Heaven and Earth. Mikasa and her new family pay respects to Eren's grave. After she dies of old age, Paradis expands, becoming a modern and even futuristic city, while the tree that Eren is buried under grows gargantuan in size. Eventually, Paradis goes to war with an unknown enemy and is eventually bombed into oblivion. An unspecified amount of time later, a traveling child and their dog come across Eren's tree, which now resembles the tree Ymir Fritz fell into. The ending song that plays implies that this takes place between 2000 to 20,000 years after the ending.
- Extra-Long Episode: This episode is 85 minutes long.
- Face Death with Dignity: When Jean and Connie are exposed to the titanizing gas, they calmly watch the immune ones escape on Falco while holding each other’s back, accepting their time has come and that this was only another day in the Survey Corps for them. They get better after Eren’s death and the Power of the Titans is removed from the world.
- Played With in regards to Eren: While he knew about his upcoming death and what would result from it, he’s clearly not happy about it, as he wanted to stay with his friends, even breaking down from the thought of Mikasa finding another man. He does compose himself however and continues to move forward to his death at Mikasa's hands, with his last seconds being of him looking at her before his eyes close for good.
- Forced Transformation: The mysterious organism releases a titanizing gas that turns every Eldian that isn't a shifter or an Ackerman into mindless titans, including Jean, Connie, Gabi, Rainer's mother and Annie's father. The transformation is undone when it's killed, however.
- Forever War: Eren admits that the conflict between Eldia and the rest of the world will probably never end, and all the Rumbling has really accomplished is putting the outside world on equal ground with Paradis, averting what would otherwise have been a Curb-Stomp Battle. At the very least, it's their distant descendants' problem now.
- Grand Finale: The final episode of Attack on Titan.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Conflict is an inevitable and inescapable aspect of the human condition, and any peace that is achieved may be upended for one reason or another. The Rumbling only serves to level the playing field; even with the loss of the power of the Titans, Paradis and the rest of the world are still at odds with each other, and the island will be destroyed in a future war—though only after every character we knew have lived long lives and passed and after many generations of peace and progress.
- Heel–Face Turn: Zeke is inspired by Armin's speech about the little things in life and chooses to give up his life to stop the Rumbling.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Zeke emerges from the Paths and allows Levi to kill him to put an end to the Rumbling.
- History Repeats:
- In The Stinger set in the distant future, a young man walks through the ruins of Paradis with their dog and stumbles across the tree where Eren's head was buried. The tree has grown to resemble the one where Ymir Fritz originally obtained the Power of the Titans, opening in the trunk and all. They walk inside it…
- The middle verse of "To You, 2,000... or 20,000 Years From Now" states this explicitly, as humanity, unwilling to cast away the stones they throw back, blast themselves to nothingness, starting the cycle over again. However, the last verse also acknowledges that plants and trees grow even in battle-scared lands and that what does survive after all of the war and conflict can be used to do better next time.
- I Am a Monster: Eren finally admits that the outcome is the way it is because he is just a garden-variety idiot who was given far too much power.Eren: Why? Why did it turn out this way? I finally know: because I'm an idiot. I'm nothing more than a garden-variety idiot who got his hands on power. That's why this is the only resolution I can bring about. That's all there is to it.
- Improbable Infant Survival: In some other part of the world, a crowd trying to escape the Rumbling is pushed into a cliff. Before falling to her death, a mother is able to pass her baby to someone else in the crowd, and they are passed from one person to another. The Rumbling is stopped before the baby is either trampled by the Wall Titans or falls into the sea.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Eren doesn't take the idea of Mikasa finding another man after he dies well. Both he and Armin agree that it was pathetic, and Eren asks Armin not to tell Mikasa.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After Eren's breakdown about his feelings for Mikasa, he tells Armin not to tell her about it, saying he wants her to find happiness. In the dream with her, he tells her to forget about him.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Mikasa ends up being the one to kill Eren by decapitating him.
- Last Kiss: Mikasa kisses Eren goodbye, both in their cabin fantasy and in reality after she decapitates him.
- The Magic Goes Away: After Eren dies and Ymir moves on, the Power of the Titans vanished completely. At least until The Stinger…
- Meaningful Echo: Years ago after the battle for Trost, Eren was held at gunpoint by the Garrison after he was discovered that he could become a Titan and therefore marked as a potential threat. Armin stepped in and struggled to appeal that he can be a big help for humanity. After this special's final battle against Eren, the Marleyans at Fort Salta hold the Eldians and Scouts of Paradis at gunpoint under the same threat, only for a more confident Armin to confront them. He tells the soldiers that none of them can transform anymore, even to defend themselves, and that notion should be enough proof of their humanity.
- Mood Whiplash: Eren's somewhat-comedic and admittedly pathetic breakdown over the possibility of Mikasa finding another man after he dies is succeeded by a horrifying view of a bloody lake of the Rumbling's victims and the reveal that before he is stopped, he will kill 80% of humanity.
- Mook Maker: When the source of living matter creature tries to reconnect with Eren (after his head from his Founding Titan form is blown off) it releases a gas that turns all the non-shifter and non-Ackerman eldians into Titans to fight Reiner.
- Musical Nod: The episodic version of the special's opening, "The Last Titan", is full of references to the anime's previous openings, including "My War" and "The Rumbling", which Linked Horizon did not make. The ending's "To You, 2,000... or 20,000 Years From Now" also references "Crimson Bow and Arrow" and "Requiem of the Dawn".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Eren comes to fully realize the horror of his actions, saying that he doesn't deserve to live after killing so many people and that he is going straight to hell.
- No Ontological Inertia: After the mysterious organism dies, the power of the Titans disappears, which means that every mindless titan goes back to being a human and all titan shifters lose their powers.
- Non-Linear Character: Eren tells Armin that because the Founder is connected to all of the Eldians across time, he can no longer tell if what he's seeing and experiencing is the past, present, or future anymore.
- No Place for Me There: While Eren has gotten the world he wanted, he knew all along that he would not be able to live on in it.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: After Zeke's Epiphany Therapy, the consciousnesses of Bertolt, 104th Ymir, Grisha Yeager, Eren Kruger, the Galliard brothers, and Tom Xsaver awaken to help the Alliance in reality and allow Mikasa to rescue Armin from the okapi titan.
- Off with His Head!: How Zeke dies at the hands of Levi, and later how Mikasa kills Eren.
- Perpetual-Motion Monster: Pieck reveals the true strength of the Cart Titan. Unlike the other titan-shifters who have a limit on how many times they can transform in a given time before they run out of energy, she can abandon her Titan body and reform another one in moments, and can do this over and over and over again seemingly without limitation.
- Secretly Selfish: After finding out that the Rumbling will result in Eren killing off eighty percent of humanity, Armin asks if Eren really is doing all of this for his friends and nation. Eren ultimately admits that he isn't: in his heart, he truly wanted to destroy the outside world just because he has the power to do so.
- See You in Hell: A uniquely non-violent example that crosses with a platonic You Are Worth Hell. Armin assures Eren that they will carry the burden of the death of 80% of humanity with them and says that if there is a hell, he'll meet Eren there when he dies too.
- Shout-Out: The Deliberately Monochrome scene of a desperate crowd trying to save a single child from the Rumbling is reminiscent of a similar scene in Schindler's List.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Zig-Zagged. In the epilogue added in Volume 34, Paradis grows to a modern city before it is bombed to ruins by an unknown enemy. In the anime, Paradis grows so much that it becomes a futuristic city before its bombed. This confirms that the characters we knew and love, as well as several generations of their own children, had passed long before Paradis had seen another war, although the manga never implied any of the main cast's deaths either, and like the anime, explicitly showed Mikasa dying of old age.
- Stable Time Loop: Eren reveals that, because he was unable to tell past from present under the Founder's power, but he knew that Bertoldt was not fated to die, he directed the Smiling Titan/Dina Fritz away from him, causing her to eat Eren's mother. Her death would inspire Eren to join the Survey Corps, and the series of events that would result in this outcome.
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Eren switches between referring to the Rumbling and its results in the past, present, and future tense. The Founder's power made him unable to discern past from future, so he literally can't tell.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We don't find out what happened to the Wall Titans, whether they turned back into humans or just disappeared.
- Wham Shot: The ocean realm that Eren and Armin talk in turning into the bloodied, stampeded wasteland that the Rumbling turned most of the world into as Eren reveals that in the end, he will kill eighty percent of humanity.
- Wham Line: One that really emphasizes just how much destruction the Rumbling causes, and nearly causes Armin to go over the Despair Event Horizon.Eren: Eighty percent. I end up killing eighty percent of humanity.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Poor Annie gets this as she finally finds her father and is about to reunite with him..only for the source of living matter to turn him into a Titan under its control. Thankfully, it’s quickly reversed once Mikasa kills Eren, restoring her father to human form.
- You Can't Fight Fate: No matter what he tried, Eren was unable to avert the future he saw when he kissed Historia's hand. Played With, as there was no outside force that forced him to perform the Rumbling; as Eren comes to realize, he was unable to change the future because deep down, he wanted it to happen, as a "slave to freedom".
- You Shall Not Pass!: Reiner, with Pieck and Annie quickly joining in, quickly hold down the source of living matter to prevent it from rejoining with Eren. And despite it’s struggles and it’s newly summoned titans (which include their families) trying to get them to let go, they are able to hold on long enough for Mikasa to kill Eren.
