season 4 episode 18
Ymir fritz obtains the power of the titans. according to eldia, she is a god-given miracle. according to marley, she made a deal with the devil. according to some others, she came in contact with the source of all organic life.
Ymir fritz dies. her soul is split into nine titans (founding titan, attack titan, colossal titan, armored titan, female titan, beast titan, jaw titan, cart titan, warhammer titan) among her descendants, the subjects of ymir, the only race of people able to turn into titans. these nine titans go on to found the empire of eldia.
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1003 B1
1003 B1 - 990 B1
990 B1
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according to historical documents interpreted by the eldian restorationists, ymir fritz uses the power of the titans to cultivate lands and build roads and bridges, bringing prosperity and wealth to the continent.
c. 370 B1
according to marley, the eldian empire lays waste to the large marleyan city of lago, before commiting the "devastation of monte" and the "ravaging of valle", resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands marleyans. those who manage to flee lago are forced to wander the desert but run into titans previously planted there by the eldian empire.
c. 370 B1 - c. 743
the eldian empire conquers the continent, including the ancient nation of marley. according to marley, the Subjects of Ymir begin oppressing all other people and races they deem inferior. They steal land and possessions, wipe many bloodlines out entirely and even carry out ethnic cleansing for around 1700 years, forcing other people to bear Eldian children in order to expand the numbers of subjects of ymir.
the ackermann bloodline is created through unknown means and start serving the king as protectors. they are allegedly specifically designed for this purpose.
around year 242, the world is ravaged by a plague but cases in the eldian empire suddenly drop overnight thanks to the king using the founding titan's power to alter the subjects of ymir's bodies.
additional info that was cut from the anime : in the manga, eren mentions that the ackermann clan was an accidental byproduct of centuries of experiments over subjects of ymir and that this bloodline can partly manifest the strength of a titan while in human form after experiencing an "awakening".
after running out of enemies, the eight families possessing the power of the titans start fighting among each other. the great titan war begins.
c. 743
as a friend of the king, the son of the shogun of hizuru, an ally nation of the eldian empire, is allowed to stay on the island of paradis.
karl fritz settles with many of his people to the island of paradis. he uses the founding titan's power to erect three walls made out of titan hardening and alter his people's memories, making them believe that all of humanity outside the walls was killed by the titans.
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some bloodlines aren't affected by this power, but they comply to the king's ideals and don't pass on history to their children. however, two of these bloodlines turn their back on the king : the ackermann clan and the oriental clan descended from hizuru's shogun who was left behind in the confusion of the great titan war. they are hunted down and persecuted as a result.
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before closing the walls, the king leaves a fake threat to the world to achieve a temporary peace, saying that if his peace is ever disturbed, he'll unleash the millions of titans sleeping inside the walls on the world.
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however, he tells the tybur family that if marley grows strong and decides to take the founding titan or to exterminate the eldians, he will accept it. until that day comes, he wishes to enjoy a brief paradise without conflict inside the walls.
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to make sure his descendants inherit his ideology and to prevent them from using the founding titan's power to retaliate against the world, he makes a "vow renouncing war" with the founding titan.
finally, he changes his name to reiss, puts a figurehead king on the throne to rule from the shadows and goes into hiding.
upset by the eldian empire's cruel history, tired of the constant in-fighting and pained by the treatment inflicted on marleyans for generations, karl fritz plots with the Tybur family to bring about the fall of the eldian empire and restore freedom to marley by presenting a marleyan as a hero : helos. the tybur family accepts in exchange of the guaranteed safety and longetivity of their family.
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after inheriting the founding titan, karl fritz abandons his duty of balancing the continent's powers and moves the capital to the remote island of paradis, offering marley a chance to rise up against an empire weakened by in-fighting. with the help of the tybur family holding the warhammer titan, marley brings seven of the nine titans under its control, only missing the founding and attack titans, and emerges victorious from the great titan war.
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while technically being the true rulers of marley from the shadows, as an act of atonement, the tybur family gives marley power and freedom to choose its own path. marley chooses the path of militarism and is revived as a formidable power, establishing itself as a military dictatorship. meanwhile, the tyburs enjoy lives of luxury and keep passing down the warhammer titan in their family from generation to generation.
c. 743 - 817
eldians who remained on the continent, secretly including a branch of the royal family who refused to follow karl fritz, are subjugated, parked inside internment zones and forced to wear identifiable armbands outside their homes.
through propaganda and brainwashing, they are taught to hate their people who fled to paradis island and that they must atone for the sins of their ancestors by serving marley. using this justification, eldians can be conscripted into the military to serve as fodder on the frontlines.
eldians found guilty of crimes are sent to the island of paradis and turned into pure titans as part of a policy to keep the eldians from the island inside the walls or used as titan weapons in war.
using their powerful army in addition to the power of six of the seven titans under their control, marley becomes the number one power in the world.
the branch of the royal family who stayed on the continent forms a revolutionary army but it ends in failure and all its members and their families are burned alive. after witnessing his family's cruel fate, eren kruger swears to restore eldia.
c. 780 - 785
the cult, including ymir, are found by the marley authorities, sent to paradis and turned into pure titans as punishment.
a young homeless eldian orphan is taken into an eldian cult and given the name "ymir".
January 26th, 806
grisha jaeger is born.
grisha takes his sister faye outside the walls of the liberio internment zone. faye is killed by a marleyan officer named gross.
816
817
819
rod and uri's father inherits the founding titan but is bound by karl fritz's vow renouncing war, thus refusing to free the people of the walls.
eren kruger inherits the attack titan.
c. 819 - 826
grisha joins the eldian restorationists, an organization led by the mysterious "owl" infiltrated in the marley government. there, he meets dina fritz, the last survivant from the royal family branch that stayed on the continent. they fall in love.
824
Erwin's father is killed by the Interior Military Police's First squad.
August 1st, 825
zeke jaeger is born.
829
to escape from his sins and commit suicide after his marleyan wife took their son's and her own life when she found out she married an eldian who had taken his armband off, tom ksaver inherits the beast titan and starts serving marley as a titan researcher and warrior.
uri reiss inherits the founding titan but is bound by karl fritz's vow renouncing war, thus refusing to free the people of the walls.
c. 829 - 832
kenny ackermann meets his grandfather to ask him why the ackermann clan, despite being a warrior clan who used to protect the king in the past, is now persecuted by the monarchy.
as he goes to pay a visit to his sister kuchel, he finds her lifeless body and meets a young, malnourished levi ackermann. for a while, kenny raises him and teaches him how to survive in the underground city before leaving him.
Zeke doesn't perform well in his warrior training, seemingly because he lacks motivation, but his parents keep putting their faith into him as they think him to be special. despite that, they pay him little attention outside of teaching him what they believe to be the true history of eldia, far from the barbaric tales taught by marley, and leave him in the care of his grandparents while they indulge in their secret activities as members of the eldian restorationists.
kenny ackermann locates uri reiss and tries to assassinate him. but after the latter shows him compassion instead of killing him, kenny starts working for him, ending the persecutions on the ackermann family.
anxious to maintain their nation's position of power in the world, the marley government set their eyes on the founding titan and the ressources of paradis island. they launch the "warrior program" to train specially selected eldian children to make use of the seven titans in their possession. the families of these chosen warriors will be given the status of "honorary marleyans". after hearing of marley's plans from the owl, grisha enlists zeke in the warrior program as a double agent to cross marley.
832
zeke makes the acquaintance of tom ksaver. while regularly playing catch ball, they bond over being outcasts who don't care about war. as time passes, zeke finds the father figure he wished for in ksaver and the latter finds his lost son in zeke.
while on cleaning duty, zeke overhears a private conversation between marleyan public security officers talking about having a lead on a group named the "eldian restorationists". Zeke tries to warn his parents to stop their dangerous activities that could get them all killed, but grisha, disappointed by his son's bad performance as a warrior candidate, refuses to hear him and tells him that they have to keep fighting so that what happened to his sister faye never happens again.
having accepted that he'll soon be sent to paradis with his family, zeke tells everything to Ksaver and makes his goodbyes. desperate, ksaver tells him to turn his parents in to earn marley's trust and protect himself and his grandparents. zeke is reluctant, but ksaver convinces him by emphasizing how bad his parents were to him and the lack of love they showed him.
The Eldian Restorationists are sent to Paradis Island where they’re turned into Pure Titans.
But just as Grisha is about to be fed to one of the newly created titans, one of the marleyan officers, eren kruger, reveals himself as the Owl and saves grisha by turning into the attack titan and killing all the marleyans there.
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before passing the attack titan to grisha, he tells him everything he knows and gives him the mission to infiltrate the walls and retake the founding titan. "if you want to save mikasa, armin and everyone else, you must carry out your mission to the end".
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the next day, grisha jaeger is found outside the walls by keith sadies. grisha asks keith to teach him about the society inside the walls.
832 - 834
grisha jaeger saves shiganshina from an epidemy.
grisha jaeger gets married with carla.
keith sadies becomes the 12th commander of the scouts regiment.
reiner braun is born to an eldian mother and a marleyan father.
august 1st, 833
november 3rd, 834
Armin arlelt is born.
january 15th, 835
historia reiss is born of an affair between rod reiss and alma, a maid working at the reiss estate.
eren jaeger is born.
february 10th, 835
march 30th, 835
mikasa ackermann is born.
835 - 836
838 - 840
keith sadies gets angry at carla for not recognizing how special what he's trying to accomplish as a scout is. carla replies that she believes not being special isn't a bad thing and that her son doesn't need to become special. to her, he already is because he was born into this world.
reiner enters the warrior program, hoping to be chosen as a warrior and be granted the status of honorary marleyan with his mother so they could be reunited with his marleyan father and live together.
c. 842
armin shows a book about the outside world to eren. eren realizes that he's not free and starts longing to explore the outside world with armin.
as his term as a warrior is closing its end, tom ksaver shares a discovery he made through his titan's memories to zeke. this gives zeke an idea : using the founding titan's power, could the subjects of ymir all be made infertile so that titans would disappear with them over time? as an eldian, wouldn't it be better to never be born in this world? the latter feeling resonates with ksaver who feels the same way ever since he lost his wife and son. thus begins their "euthanasia plan". to achieve it, zeke must keep his cover in marley, and as a titan with royal blood, he must come in contact with a holder of the founding titan who shares his goal in order to circumvent karl fritz's vow renouncing war and unlock the power to alter the subjects of ymir's bodies.
842
it is announced that out of the seven current warrior candidates, six will be chosen to inherit marley's titans. despite being the weakest of the bunch, reiner reaffirms his resolve to become a warrior and a hero who will save the world from the "devils" living on the island of paradis.
kenny has a last talk with uri and finds out his titan power can be inherited. they also wonder what made them friends despite their circumstances : violence or something else?
after seeing frieda act the same way as uri used to, kenny starts desiring the power of the founding titan for himself, wondering if it could make even "a piece of shit" like him become as compassionate as uri.
zeke jaeger inherits the beast titan by eating tom ksaver. thanks to his royal blood, if any amount of his spinal fluid enters a subject of ymir's body, he can turn them into titans and control them with a scream, similarly to the founding titan.
Frieda reiss inherits the founding titan and its memories of the world and history at the age of 15, by eating her uncle uri reiss, but is bound by karl fritz's vow renouncing war, thus refusing to free the people of the walls.
842 - 850
Zeke jaeger saves yelena during an unknown battle and eventually goes on to form a secret organisation called the "anti-marley volunteers" made up of soldiers from foreign lands conscripted into marley's army.
842 - 845
reiner inherits the armored titan, bertholdt inherits the colossal titan, annie inherits the female titan, marcel galliard inherits the jaw titan and pieck inherits the cart titan. Porco galliard is not chosen. marley put the new warriors to test in a real war and they crush an enemy nation with ease.
events of the "no regrets part 1" and "no regrets part 2" ovas : levi ackermann joins the scout regiment.
Frieda reiss regularly visits her little half-sister, historia. she teaches her how to read and how to be "lady-like". however, she erases herself and her visits from historia's memories everytime.
armin's parents attempt to go outside the walls in a hot air balloon they've created but are stopped and killed by the interior military police's first squad.
note : it is never explicitly stated in the story that this couple was armin's parents, armin only mentions to eren that his parents were planning to go outside the walls when he shows him the book about the outside world in s1E05 and that his parents died in S1e02. however, author hajime isayama confirmed that this couple was indeed armin's parents in the official "character encyclopedia" guidebook.
844
Mikasa’s parents are murdered and she gets abducted by human traffickers. amidst this traumatic experience, she awakens a mysterious power within her apparently thanks to her ackermann blood, gifting her superhuman strength and the feeling of knowing exactly "what needs to be done". She is saved by Eren and taken into the jaeger family.
845
1 day before the fall of wall maria
the warriors are celebrated before their departure for paradis island. reiner notices his father in the crowd and goes to meet him and tell him they can now live together. however, the man loudly rejects reiner and his mother and tells him that he doesn't ever want to be near them.
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the warriors depart and arrive to paradis island. they stop at night to camp out. marcel reveals that reiner wasn't supposed to be chosen as a warrior, but he influenced the military's decision by praising reiner while making his brother porco look bad to save him from shortening his lifespan by becoming a titan.
day of the fall of wall maria
The scout regiment comes back from an exterior scouting mission. keith sadies retires and Erwin Smith becomes the 13th Commander of the Scout regiment.
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The outer gate of Shiganshina District is breached by bertholdt as the colossal titan, allowing the pure titans to enter. eren's mother gets eaten by dina fritz as a pure titan. the gate of wall maria is breached by reiner as the armored titan. eren swears to exterminate every titans. the refugees of shiganshina are evacuated to trost district.
Grisha jaeger goes to the Reiss chapel. He fights against Frieda Reiss with the attack Titan's Power and manages to steal the founding titan, said to allow its user to rule every other titans, by eating her. He then kills the entire Reiss family except rod reiss who somehow manages to escape.
Grisha goes to Trost District where the refugees from Wall Maria have escaped. He reunites with Keith and Eren. after learning about carla's death, He takes his son to a nearby forest, gives him the key to the basement of their house and gives him and injects with a serum that turns him into a pure titan. He lets himself be eaten to give his powers to eren and allow him to turn back into a human possessing the attack titan and founding titan's powers. keith later finds eren unconscious before bringing him back to the shelter.
still shocked by marcel's revelation, reiner doesn't notice ymir as a pure titan behind him. marcel saves him by pushing him out of the way. ymir eats marcel and turns back into a human possessing the power of the jaw titan. after he ran away, annie and bertholdt catch up to reiner. annie wants to abandon the mission, get the jaw titan back and return to marley. but, fearing for his life if they go back and desiring to return as a hero, reiner convinces her and bertholdt to leave the jaw behind and to continue the mission.
1 day after the fall of wall maria
annie wakes up with reiner and bertholdt in the same shelter as eren, mikasa and armin. reiner apologizes and swears he'll be a true warrior.
eren wakes up with mikasa and Armin, feeling as though he met his father the last night, but brushes it off as a dream.
a few days after the fall of wall maria
rod Reiss visits his illegitimate daughter Historia Reiss and tries to take her into his custody. At the same time, the Interior Military Police's First Squad is sent by the assembly to kill Historia and her mother to clean the stain they represent on the royal family's honor. Alma is killed by Kenny, but to protect historia, rod proposes to change her name to "christa lenz" and to send her to the training corps. he later orders the wall cult to monitor her.
additional context from the manga which was cut from the anime : the reason rod didn't order them to stop their killing and take historia with him despite being the true ruler of the walls is because he wanted to hide the death of his family and the loss of the founding titan, out of fear of losing his authority over the nobles of the assembly. he only revealed it after eren transformed for the first time in trost. this is all explained by kenny in the manga as he exposes what kind of man rod truly is to historia. in other words, ordering the interior military police to spare historia and her mother so they could come live with him would have raised questions about his reason for suddenly caring about them and the whereabouts of his main family.
845 - 847
a refugee from wall maria tells reiner, bertholdt and annie a story about how he was the only one to escape his village, leaving 3 kids around their age behind when the titans attacked. a short time later, he hangs himself. the warriors start using this story and village as a cover for their origins.
sasha braus has an argument with her father about their way of life. he is considering abandoning their traditions to let their hunting grounds be turned into fields to help feed the refugees from wall maria. he tells sasha that it's important to help others, even if they're strangers, as they all share the same world.
846
To avoid a food shortage, the monarchy sends 20% of the walls' population on an expedition to retake Wall Maria. Only a hundred people come back alive. Armin’s grandfather dies in this expedition.
847
kenny creates the anti-personnel control squad under the pretext of opposing the scout regiment, but with the true purpose of helping him achieve his dream.
eren, mikasa and armin join the 104th cadet corps in order to become soldiers. Keith sadies tries to prevent eren from becoming a soldier and setting his life ablaze by sabotaging his equipment, but fails to break his resolve.
Events of the "distress" ova : During a wilderness training exercise, Christa Lenz is nearly captured by bandits. The cadets team up to take down her captors.
Events of the "a sudden visitor : the torturous curse of adolescence" ova : In order to settle an argument among cadets Jean Kirschtein and Sasha Braus, Garrison Commander Dot Pyxis hosts a cook-off.
reiner, bertholdt and annie join the 104 cadet corps in order to infiltrate the military. when asked what he came here for, reiner answers honestly : to save humanity.
note : it was omitted from the anime, but in the manga, it's explained that their goal by joining the military is to infiltrate the interior military police and get positions in the capital, thus making their investigation of the true royal family easier.
847 - 850
during their training in snowy mountains, christa lenz and ymir make a promise : when ymir reveals her secret to everyone, christa will have to live with her real name again.
848
849
events of the "ilse's notebook"
ova : during the 34th expedition beyond the walls, a soldier named ilse langnar records her encounter with a strange abnormal titan in a notebook.
850
seeing himself in a struggling eren, reiner helps him and tries to motivate him. he tells him to keep moving forward.
annie sneaks out from her training camp at night to go investigate in the capital. she tails kenny ackermann in hopes to find a lead on the true royal family. kenny sees her face and she almost gets caught but manages to escape. the next day, back to the training camp, she explains to reiner and bertholdt that she can no longer continue her investigations and suggests that they return to marley with the intel they currently gathered. reiner rejects the idea and proposes that they destroy wall rose after their graduation instead, in hopes that the founding titan will finally show itself.
note : a lot of explanations were cut from this discussion in the anime. in the manga, it's explained that the plan to join the interior military police (led by kenny himself) is compromised now that annie's face was seen, leading to reiner's last resort proposition. if the founding titan actually doesn't show up, they'll still be able to get closer to the capital, making their investigation easier.
events of the "ilse's notebook"
ova : the scout regiment finds ilse's notebook during the 49th expedition beyond the walls.
1 day before the battle for trost
Graduation ceremony of the 104th cadet Corps.
day of the battle for trost
the scout regiment halt their expedition as they notice titans heading to trost district together. suspecting the gate may have been breached, they head back to trost.
the scout regiment goes on the 56th expedition beyond the walls.
The Colossal Titan breaches the gate of Trost District and the Titans invade, sparking the beginning of the Battle for Trost. amidst the battle, eren discovers that he has the power to turn into a titan.
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as eren uses his newfound power to plug the broken gate of trost with a large boulder, marco hears a conversation between reiner and bertholdt that he shouldn't have heard. as a result, reiner has annie take off marco's gear and the three warriors watch as he gets eaten by a titan.
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the gate of trost is successfully plugged by eren.
1 day after the battle for trost
All Titans trapped inside of the Trost District are killed. 2 Titans are captured and taken into the Scout Regiment’s custody for studies.
2 days after the battle for trost
The bodies of the fallen soldiers in Trost District are retrieved by the Garrison Corps and the Training Corps. Jean Kirschtein finds Marco Bott’s corpse.
as the retrieved bodies are incinerated, jean thinks back to marco's words. he decides that he'll take his responsibilities by joining the scout regiment.
within 5 days after the battle for trost
eren wakes up chained in a dungeon and is greeted by erwin smith and levi ackermann.
eren is put on trial to decide which faction of the military will take custody of him. his custody is eventually given to the scout regiment but will be given to the military police if the scout regiment doesn't bring substantial results in its next expedition.
6 days after the battle for trost
eren joins the scout regiment under the supervision of the special operation squad (squad levi) and is relocated into the old scout regiment headquarters within wall rose where experiments with his titan powers will be conducted within the next month.
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Hange discusses her experiments on the captured titans with eren until the next morning.
7 days after the battle for trost
the two captured titans in custody of the Scouts Regiment are found dead. An equipment inspection for all the new recruits is held. Armin notices that annie presented marco's gear.
enlistment ceremony : 21 trainees from the 104th cadet Corps join the Scout Regiment. Annie Leonhardt joins the Military Police Brigade.
within 1 month after the enlistment ceremony
eren experiments with his titan form under hange zoe's supervision. they discover he needs to have a proper goal in mind while he's injured to transform.
1 month after the enlistment ceremony and 1 day before the 57th scouting mission
Events of the OVAs “Lost Girls : Goodbye, Wall Sina Part 1” and “Lost Girls : Goodbye, Wall Sina Part 2” : Annie distracts herself by searching for Carly Stratmann, the missing daughter of a Stohess merchant.
day of the 57th scouting mission
the scout regiment departs for the 57th exterior scouting mission from calaneth district in direction of shiganshina district.
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a female titan appears from the right flank in order to capture eren and is led into a forest of giant trees where erwin smith was waiting to capture her but she manages to escape.
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the female titan kills all of the special operation squad except levi and fights eren in his titan form. she manages to capture him but eren is retrieved by levi teaming up with mikasa. levi injures his leg amidst the fight.
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the scout regiment is forced to abandon the operation and retreat to calaneth district.
1 day after the 57th scouting mission
new scout regiment recruits from the 104th cadet corps suspected to hide potential allies of annie leonhardt are kept in a building in the south of wall rose under supervision of miche zacharias.
Annie Leonhardt is identified as the most likely true identity of the Female Titan by the Scout Regiment and plans are made to capture her in Stohess District.
2 days after the 57th scouting mission
as part of a recon-in-force operation, marleyan soldiers engulf ragako village with a combat gas containing zeke's spinal fluid, allowing the latter to transform its inhabitants into pure titans with a scream and control them.
zeke and his newly-created titans are sighted inside wall rose. the new scout regiment recruits who were under suspicion of hiding potential allies of annie are dispatched to warn nearby villages of the danger.
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in stohess, the scouts manage to capture annie but she locks herself inside a crystal. after the fight, a part of the wall that was damaged falls off, revealing that the walls are made of titans. pastor nick from the wall cult knew about it and points them towards historia reiss, aka christa lenz, who apparently comes from an important family who knows the secrets of the walls and is currently on the frontlines in wall rose.
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the scouts find her the next day at utgard castle, where ymir revealed her identity as a titan in order to protect her comrades who had found refuge there from a horde of titans during the night. shortly after, reiner and bertholdt are also revealed to be the armored and colossal titans. they manage to kidnap eren and ymir but in a chaotic battle between them and the scouts, eren discovers that he can control the titans and manages to escape their grasp. ymir makes the choice to follow reiner and bertholdt back to marley while the scouts retreat with eren.
within 2 days
within 1 week after eren's rescue
reiner, bertholdt and ymir arrive at the south wharf and reunite with zeke. reiner and bertholdt tell him about eren jaeger possessing the founding titan and his father who was a doctor. zeke deduces that grisha survived and stole the founding titan using the missing attack titan before passing his powers to eren. Zeke is distraught to find out he has a half brother who likely went through the same torments as he did at the hands of grisha. he decides he has to save him and get him on his side.
The government declares the safety of Wall Rose and the refugees who had been sent to the Underground City beneath the Capital are sent back to their homes after anarchy nearly breaks out due to a lack of provisions.
Levi forms his new squad in charge of protecting Eren and Historia and they relocate into a new hideout within Wall Rose. Historia tells the squad about her upbringing in the reiss family.
ymir is allowed to write a goodbye letter under reiner's surveillance. reiner promises ymir to deliver this letter to historia. not long after, she is eaten by porco galliard, the brother of the previous holder of the jaw titan, marcel.
erwin wakes up in a hospital room and is given news that the titans who invaded wall rose are suspected of being the residents of ragako who have been turned through unknown means. the beast titan is suspected of being behind this incident.
1 week after Eren's rescue
sensing that the scout regiment is getting too close to some truths that should stay hidden, the monarchy sends the interior military police's first squad to assassinate pastor nick and kidnap eren and historia.
the scouts discover that the reiss family is the true royal family ruling from the shadows. before he is arrested and the scout regiment disbanded, erwin makes plans to overthrow the government and replace the figurehead king by historia, who would be a ruler more favorable to the scout regiment and unveiling the hidden truths of their world to the people. after some struggle, erwin's coup is successful.
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eren and historia learn some shocking truths from rod reiss, historia's father and the true ruler of the walls. after defeating the gigantic pure titan form her father turned into, historia is crowned queen of the walls and a new era begins.
1 week
within 2 months after historia's coronation
The nobles from the assembly are imprisoned and members of the Military take their places.
Queen Historia brings many orphans from the Underground city beneath the capital to the surface world to reside in her orphanage.
thanks to technology that was hidden by the interior military police, a new weapon designed to harm the armored titan called "thunder spear" is developed.
Fragments of glowing stones from the Reiss Chapel cave are used as sources of light, increasing productivity.
The Scout Regiment's increased popularity causes many young soldiers to enlist or reassign.
Eren's new hardening ability is used to create the “Executioner from Hell” where Trost's outer gate once stood, which begins to clear Titans roaming inside Wall Maria.
2 months after historia's coronation
zeke jaeger defeats reiner's armored titan in shiganshina, deciding that the warriors will wait in the district to ambush the scouts, in order to retrieve the founding titan.
note : while this scene is shown without indication of how much time passed since historia's coronation in the anime, it is shown to take place after the 2 months timeskip in the manga.
a council of military leaders decides that levi ackermann should be entrusted with the decision of when and on whom to use the titan transformation serum.
Eren remembers seeing Keith Sadies in his father’s memories of the day Wall Maria fell. hange and Squad Levi visit Keith to learn more about his involvement with Grisha jaeger.
2 days before the mission to retake wall maria
Erwin Smith holds a meeting with his squad leaders to discuss the upcoming expedition. After the meeting, Levi tries to get Erwin to stay behind to reduce the risk to his life, but Erwin manages to convince him otherwise.
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the night before the expedition to Shiganshina, The soldiers of the Scout Regiment are treated to a feast including meat.
1 day before the mission to retake wall maria
The Scout Regiment departs for Shiganshina District at twillight, receiving a hero's send off.
day of the mission to retake wall maria
reiner, bertholdt and zeke are warned of the scout regiment's arrival by pieck, the cart titan, who was scouting the area. they prepare to ambush the scouts.
the scout regiment arrives to shiganshina at dawn. eren manages to seal the outer gate just before Reiner, Bertholdt and zeke ambush them. from there, a merciless battle ensues.
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despite getting almost completely wiped out, the scout regiment manages to defeat the enemy and capture bertholdt. zeke tells eren that he knows what he's been through and that he'll come back to save him, before escaping with reiner. a fight between levi, eren and mikasa breaks out over who between erwin and armin should be saved with the titan injection. levi ultimately chooses to save armin and to let erwin rest in peace. armin inherits the colossal titan by eating bertholdt.
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The scouts finally enter grisha jaeger's basement. they find three books and a "photograph". they learn that, outside the walls, humanity is not extinct and enjoys a refined existence in a civilisation more advanced than the walls. Because of the crimes of their ancestors and their innate difference as the only race that can turn into titans, the people of the walls known as the "eldians" are hated by the rest of the world who wants to exterminate them.
1 day after the mission to retake wall maria
the 9 remaining members of the scout regiment return to trost in the morning and are welcomed by a cheering crowd.
within a few days after the mission to retake wall maria
eren wakes up in a jail cell where he's been put with mikasa to serve time for their insubordination. After reading his father's books, eren has started reliving his father's memories in his sleep. through these memories, he realizes that the pure titan who ate his mother and hannes was dina fritz, his father's first wife.
eren and mikasa are released from their cells. Historia reads a goodbye letter from ymir addressed to her that was given to hange by reiner before he escaped.
a military meeting is held to review all the new information acquired by the scout regiment and to decide their next course of actions. they put all their hope on eren's ability to use the founding titan in order to protect the island.
that's when eren realizes that he was able to use it when he came in physical contact with dina fritz, a titan with royal blood. fearing the military would decide to make historia a titan, eren decides to keep this information to himself for the time being.
at the end of the meeting, it is decided that the truth discovered in the basement would be made public.
the truth discovered in the basement is made public and the reception is mixed : some believe it, others laugh it off and those who still object to military rule come up with conspiracy theories to spread.
a ceremony is held to honor the 9 survivors of the battle of shiganshina and the 199 members of the scout regiment who gave their lives in this battle. as eren touches historia's hand, he suddenly sees memories of his father from 5 years ago, begging frieda reiss to save her people before deciding to steal the founding titan from her.
between a few days and a few months after the mission to retake wall maria
news about marley's loss of the colossal and female titan spreads to the world. perceiving this as a hit to marley's military might, nations from the middle-east form an alliance and declare war against marley.
c. 851 - 852
851
zeke jaeger holds a secret meeting with kiyomi azumabito, ambassador of hizuru and member of the azumabito clan descended from hizuru's shogun. he demands hizuru's backing of his (fake) plan to save the eldians in exchange for allowing them to find the lost descendant of the shogun on paradis and giving them access to a ressource unique to that island, iceburst stones, which would help hizuru's industries to bloom.
about 8 months after the mission to retake wall maria
thanks to the "executioner from hell", wall maria is cleared from roaming pure titans. refugees from 6 years ago are allowed to resettle their lost homes.
6 years after the fall of wall maria
for the first time in 6 years, the scout regiment goes on a new expedition beyond wall maria. they encounter almost no titans, as most of them were within wall maria and have been eliminated.
for the first time, they reach the edge of their island and discover the sea. eren wonders "if we kill all our enemies beyond the sea, will we finally be free?"
a few weeks to a few months after the scout regiment first reached the sea
marley sends survey ships to report what is going on the island. by chance, the scout regiment manages to intercept and capture them. among the soldiers on these ships are soldiers belonging to the "anti-marley volunteers". they offer their help to the island, as zeke jaeger apparently wishes to free the eldians and has a (fake) secret plan that can be carried out to do so. however, this plan requires the founding titan (eren) to be united with a titan of royal blood (zeke).
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while the military is at first reticent to cooperate with zeke, they accept to see his plan through after eren lends it more credence by revealing how he was able to use the founding titan back when he touched dina fritz's pure titan, but also because they will need the volunteers' cooperation to intercept any future ships marley may send. however, they are still put under scrutiny and forbidden to talk with eren.
the leader of the volunteers, yelena, advocates for the marleyan prisoners of war to be given rights and jobs in certain fields like restoration and engineering. however, her true purpose with this is to put the wine plot in motion.
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with their help, the island starts to modernize and is introduced to many new things from the outside world such as weaponry, transportation and even cuisine. the construction of a bigger port begins.
852
seeing how they were able to develop friendly relationships with some marleyan prisoners of war, armin wonders if it could be possible to clear out the misunderstanding that paradis is a threat to the world by simply talking. eren is more pessimistic and thinks they need to take action to keep the world at bay and buy more time to find a solution.
853
the construction of the port is completed and paradis welcome the ambassador of hizuru, kiyomi azumabito. she is reunited with mikasa who is descended from hizuru's shogun, just like the azumabito clan.
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kiyomi then proceeds to explain the details of zeke's (fake) plan to save the eldians which requires hizuru's mediation in exchange of an access to iceburst stones. after hearing the details of this plan, historia reluctantly agrees but eren rejects it firmly and demands to use all the time paradis has left until the end of zeke's term to look for an alternative that wouldn't require historia's sacrifice.
paradis asks hizuru to help them open dialogue and trade with other nations, but hizuru declines, saying that the world wishes to see paradis as the root of evil to maintain global stability.
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suspecting the true reason behind hizuru's refusal to only be a wish to monopolize the island's ressources, hange proposes going on a scouting mission, creating a base in marley and infiltrating from there to gather information that may help them find an alternative to zeke's (fake) plan and search for allies in the world by themselves. after all, other nations wouldn't trust the eldians of paradis without even seeing their faces and knowing who they're dealing with.
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eren, mikasa, jean, conny and sasha discuss who will inherit eren's titan in five years, when his time is up. but eren says he doesn't want to pass it to any of them, as they are all important to him and he wants them to live long lives.
851 - 854
with their wireless communication devices, the anti-marley volunteers help the scout regiment to lure and capture 32 survey ships sent by marley.
c. 853 - 854
10 months before the attack on liberio
a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the railroad is held in trost. that same day, while in charge of watching her, floch allows yelena to meet with eren in private without the military's approval. she tells him about zeke's true plan : the euthanasia plan, and his wish to meet him in person and in private.
historia begins a relationship with a man working at her orphanage and gets pregnant.
854
eren leaves the scout regiment and infiltrates marley on his own to meet zeke and discuss the euthanasia plan.
day of the fall of fort slava
marley emerges victorious from the war against the middle-east alliance after capturing fort slava and sinking their fleet. however, the development of new anti-titan weaponry during this war has made clear that the hegemony of the power of the titans is coming to an end.
1 day or within a few days after the fall of fort slava
marley holds a military meeting to decide their next course of actions. to deter enemy nations from attacking while marley develops its outdated conventional weaponry and reorganizes its military, zeke suggests to resume the paradis operation to seize the island's ressources and take control of all nine titans within a year.
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reiner hangs out with the warrior candidates before the warrior unit heads back to liberio. eren watches them from afar. in the train, falco reaffirms to reiner his resolve to inherit the armored titan to save gabi from an early death.
1 day after the return to liberio
the warrior unit arrives to liberio the next day and its members return to their families in the internment zone. Falco stays behind to help out crippled eldian soldiers suffering from trauma, among which eren jaeger is undercover.
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reiner and his cousin gabi have a dinner with their family. Reiner tells them about the days he spent on paradis island but struggles to paint its inhabitants as devils.
zeke holds a meeting with the warriors. he explains that to save eldians from potential extermination by the rest of the world, they must help marley maintain its power by retaking the founding titan and paradis' ressources. leading up to this operation, the tybur family will use its good reputation abroad to gather vips from around the world in liberio during a festival and remind them of how much of a threat the island of paradis poses to the world, thus painting marley and its eldians as heroes saving the world.
at night, reiner reminisces about his childhood and what led him to become a warrior.
2 days after the return to liberio
after reminiscing about his days spent on paradis and knowing he will soon have to go trample that island again, reiner attempts to commit suicide. however, he is unknowingly stopped by falco banging on the wall and lamenting his lack of power to surpass gabi. reiner decides to keep living for these children.
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as falco walks past the hospital, he is called by eren posing as a crippled eldian soldier to infiltrate marley. eren says that everyone has something pushing them into hell. most of the times, that thing is not their own will. but those who push themselves into hell can see something beyond it. maybe hope, maybe another hell. "the only ones who know are the ones who keep moving forward". eren asks falco to mail a letter for him from outside the internment zone.
the current head of the tybur family, willy tybur, meets with the commander of the warrior unit, theo magath. they discuss about the marleyans and eldians' current situation and how marley's self-destructive march towards war has led it on the verge of collapse. Willy claims the responsibility for letting things come to this lies with the tybur family. he asks magath to join hands with him to save the nation, claiming that "marley needs a new helos".
eren and zeke meet in secret. Eren tells zeke that he shares his sentiment about never being born in this world and agrees to achieve the euthanasia plan to put an end to the 2000 years of titan history. however, they do not come in contact yet as zeke deems it to be too early, likely because the rumbling needs to be tested first as one of the requirements for the plan.
from there, they start planning the attack on liberio during the festival to force the hand of paradis' military and buy themselves time by damaging marley's military. they also discuss other things such as the nature of the ackermann clan.
around 1 month after the fall of fort slava
a couple days before the festival
after a military meeting to prepare the invasion of paradis, the warriors observe the warrior candidates training. falco manages to beat gabi in a race for the first time.
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magath meets with willy and they have a secretive talk about "the house" needing "large-scale demolition". Willy gives magath control of the military and Magath warns him about "rats" having infiltrated "the house".
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falco visits eren at the hospital to thank him for giving him motivation and eren thanks falco for mailing multiple of his letters for the past month.
1 day before the festival
day of the festival
a reception ceremony is held for the journalists, ambassadors and vips from around the world. willy tybur announces his stage production at the upcoming festival, during which he will reveal his answer to the problem of the titans.
note : in willy and magath's conversation, "the house needing large-scale demolition" seems to be alluding to magath wanting to rebuild the military from scratch and the "rats having infiltrated the house" seems to be referring to infiltrated enemies.
willy and magath have a private talk while riding in a carriage. they are aware of "enemies aligned with paradis" having infiltrated marley and willy plans on flushing them out by using himself and the incompetent top brass of marley's military as bait. by doing so, he will make room for magath to rebuild the military as he desires and make himself and the victims of the attack, most of whom will be eldians from the internment zone, into tragic martyrs to rally the world to their cause.
just before the beginning of willy's stage production, falco brings reiner down a basement behind the stage to reunite him with his old friend, eren, unknowing of the latter's true identity.
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eren and reiner have a talk while listening to willy's speech. eren acknowledges that he now understands reiner's actions, his feelings and that he's the same as him. but he will keep moving forward until his enemies are destroyed. as Eren suddenly turns into a titan, reiner attempts to protect falco.
On stage, willy reveals the truth about the great titan war and explains why the island of paradis is now more of a threat to the world than it has ever been. willy demands that the nations of the world unite against this common enemy.
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as willy officially declares war on paradis, eren bursts out in his titan form from the building behind the stage and eats him. a fierce battle between the marley forces and the scout regiment ensues.
the scout regiment emerges victorious, having annihilated the top brass of marley's military, destroyed their main fleet of warships and eren having acquired the warhammer titan by eating willy's sister, lara tybur. more importantly, they retrieve zeke jaeger and have now reunited the founding titan and a titan with royal blood.
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however, eren's companions are displeased with how he forced them to carry out this attack by using himself as a hostage, resulting in eight casualties in their ranks, including sasha who was shot by gabi who boarded their evacuation airship with falco.
1 day after the festival
a funeral is held for the eight soldiers who died in the attack on liberio, including sasha. nicolo, a marleyan prisoner of war allowed to work as a cook who had taken a liking to sasha, invites her family to come eat his food in her memory.
zeke is brought to a forest of giant trees, a perfect terrain for odm gear, where he'll be detained under levi's watch until the military lets him meet with eren to test the rumbling, which won't be allowed until the two brothers intentions and the truth behind eren's defection are cleared.
the volunteers offer titan injection serums they stole from marley to the paradis military but pyxis puts them under arrest as a measure of cautiousness now that zeke is on the island.
gabi and falco are detained in a jail cell.
armin confides in annie, who is still crystallized, about the past 3 years, how they were led to commit the same actions as her, reiner and bertholdt did 9 years ago and how he doesn't understand eren anymore.
eren is detained in a jail deep underground for his insubordination. hange visits him to ask why he decided to infiltrate and attack marley on his own, put the island in danger and go along with zeke's (fake) plan. does he not care about historia's safety anymore? eren evades the question and tells her that he can get out of his jail whenever he wants and that she's powerless to stop him. he angrily asks her if she has another way while pulling her by the collar and threatening to transform.
some military police officers, including nile, have dinner in a restaurant where marleyan prisoners of war, including nicolo, are allowed to work. they have an argument about historia's pregnancy. roeg finds the timing of her pregnancy suspicious, as it prevents the military police to carry out their original plan of feeding zeke to her upon his arrival on the island until she delivers. he suspects the leader of the volunteers, yelena, to be the instigator of this plot.
mikasa, armin, jean and conny have a discussion about eren and wonder what pushed him to suddenly decide to follow zeke's (fake) plan and risk the life of his friends, whom he claimed to be the most important to him, by calling them on the battlefield, leading to sasha's death. has eren changed? before the military decides to feed eren to someone they trust more, armin proposes that he and mikasa have a talk with eren to clear out his intentions.
note : in english translations, armin says that "we" have the possibility to feed eren to someone "we" can trust, but in japanese, he doesn't use any pronoun. this suggests that he is only states the availability of this option to the military possessing the titan serum rather than something he himself necessarily considers doing.
within 1 month after the festival
after discovering proofs of zeke's betrayal, magath tells the warriors that a global alliance between the world's armies will launch an attack on paradis in 6 months. however, to rescue gabi and falco and take zeke down before he makes his move, the warriors urge magath to launch a surprise attack on paradis as soon as possible.
note : the anime's reordering of some scenes makes it seem like this scene happens later than it actually does, which explains how pieck has already infiltrated the walls in a short amount of time.
Gabi and falco manage to escape from prison. after running for a whole night, they meet a girl named kaya, who happens to be the girl sasha saved 4 years ago, when the inhabitants of ragako were turned into titans. knowing that they are from marley but ignorant of the fact that gabi is the one who killed sasha, she brings them to the braus stables, where she lives with sasha's family and other orphans.
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kiyomi azumabito returns to the island with the first "flying boat" ever created, which will be used to observe the demonstration of the rumbling's power.
after learning about floch's actions, pyxis notices that he was the one in charge of yelena's surveillance around the time eren started moving on his own, 10 months ago. he interrogates yelena and she admits that floch allowed her to meet with eren in private, unbeknownst to the other volunteers. she claims that she only met him out of curiosity and wanting him to know who she is but pyxis doesn't buy that she would risk this unauthorized meeting for something so trivial.
to pressure the military into releasing eren, floch, louise, holger and wim leak information about his imprisonment to the public. they are sentenced to jail by hange for their breach of command.
kaya brings gabi and falco to her village which was destroyed in the attack 4 years ago and asks them to explain why her mother had to die that day. gabi tries to argue by reciting the propaganda she was taught but fails to give kaya a solid justification. despite that, as she wishes to follow sasha's example, kaya decides to help falco and gabi return to marley by telling them about nicolo, the marleyan cook who invited sasha's family at his restaurant.
around 1 month after the festival
day of premier zachary's assassination
hange interrogates another volunteer, onyankopon, to confirm if he was truly unaware of yelena's secret meeting with eren and ask him everything he knows about her. he describes yelena as someone who was merciless to marleyans, which seems to conflict with the lengths she went to in order to make sure marleyan prisoners of war would be given rights and jobs in certain fields of work on the island. hange takes onyankopon with her as she continues her investigation.
because of the military's lack of justification to the public for detaining eren, citizens manifest in front of the military hq for his liberation.
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at the same time, armin and mikasa meet premier zachary to ask permission for talking to eren, but zachary refuses, as eren is now believed to be manipulated by zeke because of his refusal to reveal what he discussed with yelena during his private meetings with her and with zeke while he was away in marley.
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after the meeting, zachary is assassinated with a bomb placed on the custom chair he asked new scout regiment recruits to bring in his office. the bomb was placed by supporters of eren in retaliation against the military's plans to transfer his founding titan to someone they trust.
after escaping from jail, eren reunites with a group of supporters, inlcuding floch, louise, holger and wim who have also escaped from their cells. floch tells eren that they have more allies infiltrated in the military. Eren and his followers start looking for zeke.
as hange, armin, mikasa, jean, conny and onyankopon ride towards the restaurant where nicolo works to continue investigating yelena and zeke's potential schemes, pieck successfully infiltrates the walls.
1 day after premier zachary's assassination
the heads of the 3 military divisions gather and the new group of defectors following eren is given the name "jaegerists". as the new head of the military replacing premier zachary, pyxis proposes to surrender to the jaegerists to avoid useless bloodshed within the military and to negotiate with them using zeke's location as a bargaining chip. however, this is actually a ruse, as he secretly plans to have eren be eaten before he reaches zeke.
nicolo receives sasha's family, including gabi and falco, at the restaurant where he works. hange and the others arrive shortly after. when nicolo finds out gabi's identity, he attempts to strike her with a bottle of marleyan wine but falco is the one to take the hit.
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after being talked down from killing them by sasha father, nicolo exposes the wine plot, fearing that falco may have ingested some of it.
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at the same time, the jaegerists show up at the restaurant. they capture everyone. floch, who knows about the wine plot, says that they won't negotiate with pyxis.
in another room, eren tells armin and mikasa that the attack on liberio and everything he's doing is of his own free will. he then accuses armin of being controlled by bertholdt's memories and mikasa of being a slave to her ackermann instincts, claiming that her attachment to him is a mere byproduct of those instincts. when he tells her that he's always hated her, armin punches him but eren beats him up and orders his men to capture them and bring them to shiganshina district along with hange and all the others.
falco and multiple military officers who drank the wine laced with zeke's spinal fluid, including pyxis and nile, feel the effects of his scream. thankfully, they're not in range to be turned into titans.
the jaegerists take control of the military hQ of shiganshina, where the 109th cadet corps are being trained by keith sadies. floch orders the cadets to show their resolve and loyalty to the jaegerists by beating up sadies, a symbol of the old ways that they must weed out. those who refuse will be sent to jail. he then demands hange to lead him to zeke's location. meanwhile, mikasa, armin, jean, conny, nicolo and sasha's family are detained in a cell
levi is informed about zachary's death, the rise of the jaegerists and pyxis' plan to have eren be eaten by someone. but he decides that the one who should be eaten is zeke. he plans on feeding him to a jaegerist whom they could later feed to historia after she gave birth.
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sensing levi's intentions, zeke screams to turn levi's subordinates, who had drunk wine laced with his spinal fluid, into titans. Zeke attempts to escape while levi is busy dealing with the newly created pure titans, but to his surprise, levi doesn't hesitate to slay his former comrades and catches up to him before defeating him once more.
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after tying him up to a thunder spear, assuring his death if he was to make any unwanted move, Levi heads towards an unknown location with zeke on a carriage. but zeke remembers his mission...
2 days after premier zachary's assassination
desperate after reminiscing his past, zeke willingly detonates the thunder spear inside him, taking himself and levi out.
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While zeke is on the verge of death, one of the titans he created that wasn't finished off, crawls out of the forest, rips its belly open and stores him inside it.
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meanwhile, Hange and floch's group head towards their position after hearing the thunder spear's explosion. hange finds levi's body in a pitiful state and claims that he's dead. after the titan starts evaporating inwards instead of outwards, zeke emerges fully healed, shocked by what he just experienced
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hange uses this moment of distraction to run away with levi's body. zeke and floch's group head back to shiganshina.
all the military officers who have ingested zeke's spinal fluid are forced to submit to the jaegerists, branded with armbands and gathered in shiganshina whose inhabitants have been previously evacuated in preparation for the rumbling's test. the jaegerists now effectively control the island with popular support. all that's left is to reunite eren and zeke.
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while yelena reveals zeke's euthanasia plan to armin, mikasa and the others who have been imprisoned, pieck, who has infiltrated the jaegerists, makes her move to rescue gabi and lead Eren into a trap. as eren barely evades getting eaten by porco galliard, airships descend onto shiganshina, marking the beginning of marley's surprise attack. instead of running away and hiding himself while waiting for zeke to arrive, eren engages a fight against the marley forces. meanwhile, onyankopon goes to free the prisoners to help protect eren, lest paradis may lose its last hope. after some hesitation, Armin, Mikasa, Conny and Jean decide to trust in the fact that eren would never agree to something like the euthanasia plan and is just using zeke. Colt and gabi reunite with falco thanks to nile and gabi admits there were no devils on this island. zeke arrives and helps eren make his way towards him by throwing rocks at their enemies from the top of the wall. but pieck and magath manage to shoot him down with a sneak attack.
zeke wakes up in an unknown place where a strange little girl is rebuilding his body with soil. he is unable to do anything but watch for what feels like years, although only an instant passed in the real world. in the sky, he sees trails of light that he later realizes must be the paths.