And so, here we are...the end of the road...I’m not talking about the countdown or the year in general, I’m talking about Attack on Titan because we made it to the final episode of the series because, after ten years in the air, the worldwide phenomenon comes to a close and the last that yours truly will bring up on the show in this countdown. And, once again, it’s an hour-long episode but gotta give this anime the sendoff it deserves despite...uh...well, a divisive conclusion to say the least. Coming in at number 4 of the Top 12 Countdown of 2023 is Attack on Titan with “The Final Chapters Special 2”.
Where we left off from the number 6 spot in the countdown with Attack on Titan, a lot of stuff was uncovered from the previous episode. Death and destruction are frowned upon by Eren onto Marley with The Rumbling. The Scouts make their final preparations before heading out, only to have preparations to be disrupted by Floch who somehow survived and made his way across the ocean. Hange sacrifices herself to buy time for everyone to escape the island in a literal blaze of glory. And, of course, setting up the final battle with Fort Salta, the location where the people who barely escaped the Rumbling, primarily the Eldians who resided in the internment zone in Liberio, evacuated to the site and thus, after the blimps got destroyed and the people thought they would be sitting ducks as the Rumbling make their way to the fort, here comes the Scouts and thus, after ten years, four seasons with the fourth season being divided into four parts, and eighty-eight episodes later, the final battle is finally here. Let’s get negative...is what I would say if it weren’t for...uh...
Oh yeah, Armin, right away, get sent to the sidelines courtesy of a random titan that Eren pulled out of nowhere that resembles... a pig? A boar? A swine creature, although Ymir, before being prosecuted by King Fritz that led to her obtaining the Founding Titan, that was a pig that she released, so a pig-type of Titan that took Armin out of the action and that didn’t last until we get to the second half of the episode. A mere 25-30 minutes. Turning the fight throughout in the first half of the episode being separated into two missions, stopping Eren by blowing up his Titan and now, locating the Pig Titan, and rescuing Armin.
And boy, the Scouts were getting their asses handed at the start of the episode. As if losing Armin was bad enough for some, primarily Mikasa, to shift the attention toward the Pig Titan that took Armin, you have the rest of the Scouts along with Reiner and Pieck having trouble to the max when taking on what might as well be considered as AI Titans, and no, they didn’t create it through artificial intelligence, you calm down. But those AI Titans aren’t the usual abnormal type that they’re usually familiar with at the beginning of the series because those stone AI Titans happened to the Titans that used to belong to the previous users of the Nine Titans. We’re talking past users of the Armored, Jaw, Warhammer, Cart, Attack, Female, Beast, and Colossal Titans. Eight of the Nine Titans, excluding the Founding. And yeah, it’s not looking good for the Scouts when taking on the AI replicas of the previous users of the Nine Titans with some of the previous users being the people that the Scouts, Reiner, and Pieck knew being a part of Eren’s expansion deck like Bertholdt, Marcel, Porco, and Ymir.
So yeah, as if it feels like the squad is down 28-0 in the first quarter, everyone had massive difficulties taking each Titan down. Whether it’s Reiner getting the upper half of his titan being eaten by a replica of Bertholdt’s Colossal Titan to each of the scouts unable to land a hit with Levi doing some of the work before losing all feeling to his legs thanks to a bite from a snake-like Titan to Pieck trying to play the hero by attempting to wrap the explosives over the neck where the nape is at, only to be stopped by getting forked by the replica of the Warhammer Titan that was previously held by Lara Tyber, the last user of the Titan before getting consumed by Eren to take the abilities into his expansion pack, everyone but Mikasa is getting manhandled by Eren. And the worst part for the Scouts, this is only the first half. A mere 15 minutes into the episode and it feels like Eren is playing dirty with everyone on his way to Fort Salta to make sure the Rumbling doesn’t get halted. And despite the efforts they put up against the herd of replica titans, again, things are not looking good for the Scouts, and getting manhandled to the point where it’s not even funny and it’s not supposed to be funny. Remember the previous post in the countdown with Yhwach getting manhandled by Ichibei? Yeah, it’s like that and it has gotten to the point where they need to have some assistance to aid them in this final battle. And they got it once Mikasa, as the only one who was fully healthy in the group, ready to take on everyone by her lonesome...
Here comes Falco in his Titan form with wings now to get everyone out of dodge along with Gabi and Annie for extra support. You could say that it’s a bit of foreshadowing from one of the military officers at the start of Season 4 about why we didn’t have any Titans with wings and later Falco in the previous episode about him flying that led to his Titan being capable of flying. And how those three even ended up on the battlefield comes down to one simple reason. That leads us to that small scene with the ship that was supposed to head to Hizuru, only to get shipwrecked. All caused by Falco transforming into a Titan, resulting in the sinking of the boat and having the likes of Kiyomi, Yelena, and the rest of the Azumabito clan being stranded at sea. Yeah, I don’t know why Falco can’t just get off the boat and probably get away from the boat that would be in the range of the transformation, but, fine, I guess. At least the Scouts got some needed help and now, the counterstrike begins by having the team split into two with the first to get to the neck and the other go and find the swine-like titan and save Armin. But not before everyone telling Mikasa to not hesitate because it’s Eren that they’re fighting and despite her affection towards the guy, everyone had agreed that they had to cut him off and even they knew that it would suck to cut down someone they’ve been rocking with back at the beginning of their days in the training regiment, but again, they had to come to a difficult agreement that they have to kill Eren to stop the Rumbling.
Going back to the fight, everyone agreeing to the game plan, it’s game time once again for the Scouts in an effort to take down Eren while at the same time, saving Armin. And the Scouts tried to make it close with Reiner landing hit after hit on each of the replica titans and Pieck joining back to the fight to create an opening for Jean to get to Eren’s neck where the explosives and detonator are at but once again, outnumbered and outmatched. Especially with Pieck transforming one too many times after getting hit one too many times by the random replica Titans out of the wazoo.
And on the other side, you have Mikasa and Annie looking for the pig-like titan that took Armin, and much like with a boar hunt, that being is a pesky motherfucker when trying to evade getting caught. I don’t know anything about hunting and I don’t even think about planning on doing it, but this is a pesky motherfucker for Annie and Mikasa, along with Connie, going after if they want to retrieve Armin. Them getting close to creeping up to the being and even if they do get to the being with Annie throwing Mikasa for her to fire her thunder spear...only to be deflected by a random titan and end up falling short and letting the animal run free once more across the back of Eren’s Titan.
Not to mention, you have that brief monologue with Levi riding on Air Falco when looking for Zeke. Him questioned, especially with him now dealing with a bum knee as he if he has really become washed when bringing up if their jobs, as soldiers, when bringing up Erwin and the promise he made to avenge his former comrade when looking for Zeke. And also brings up the notion of that wiping out every Titan would make things better for everyone. Leading to that should motivate Levi, despite the lack of fingers in his hands and now having to deal with his legs being out of commission, in what is pretty much the equivalent of a player who had been around in the league for more than 20 years and counting going through a decline but still have it in the bank. So for Levi, besides that, the focus should be on stopping The Rumbling, and thus, killing Eren, Zeke should be the top priority for Levi for him to send him packing.
In what is pretty much the biggest “now is not the time to do this shit” moment, aside from Armin at the beginning of the episode having himself a monologue that resulted in him getting captured by the pig-like titan, you have to go to Fort Salta where the now-refuges who escaped the Rumbling, primarily the Eldians who used to live in the internment zone, treating Onyankopon for his injuries after crash landing the plane that the Scouts in the previous episode had to skydive onto Eren’s back. Getting the supplies to treat the injured and, of course, the Marleyan soldiers led by Muller, decided to point their guns at the Eldians. Like...is now the right time to have ourselves a race war? Because this is the last thing nobody needs? And a race war is something that shouldn’t have occurred, especially during a world-ending event of all the times.
So with that happening, along with the Scouts being unable to get the upper ground on the replica Titans that it all started to feel as if all hope was lost, we had the scenes of the death and destruction that The Rumbling is doing to everyone and their daily lives. From people praying to buildings being destroyed and landscapes terraformed to even that once scene where a lot of people are surrounded by the Colossal Titans and a cliff as if they have choose how they want to die. Either get trampled by the Colossal Titans or fall to your death, those are the only options in what this scene holds with the people attempting to flee from being trampled. That is horrific to see but at the same time, the tone and the visuals for the scene with The Rumbling look amazing as if you know it’s a hard scene but you can’t turn away. Especially with that one moment where you had a woman, a mother, falling to her death to escape The Rumbling, but not before throwing her baby to the next person up and to the next and the next and so on. Like, holy shit what a scene that was. And just like with the previous episode at the start with The Rumbling entering Marleyan territory, the death and destruction that was presented shows how horrifying it looks, and the visuals, animation, and score being used made things amazing at the same time.
Getting to the point where you have Armin attempting to convince his physical body while being inside that pig-like Titan’s mouth and trying to get out when noticing that the Scouts are in trouble and everyone continuing to die from left to right as The Rumbling continues to wreak havoc but to no avail in trying to get this physical body to respond. And this is not Eren’s doing to have Armin suffocate to death, even though Eren could but, again, Eren is only doing this to protect Paradis, but instead, it’s all Ymir’s doing to make sure that everyone doesn’t get to Eren and end the Rumbling. Ready to waive the white flag before seeing an image of Bertholdt being presented. Then we get to the next scene with Armin to wrap up the first half of the episode, him continuing to have an existential crisis as the Scouts continue to be manhandled by Eren and everyone dying from left to right, it almost feels like all hope seems to be lost...that was until Armin noticed some sand in his hand and found himself inside the Paths and it didn’t take long for Armin to find Zeke, who was swallowed by Ymir and was busy making sandcastles.
And this is where we’re starting to feel the tides to turn to start the fourth chapter of this episode. You have Zeke talking about the creation of life. You know the kit and caboodle about this, “In the beginning, blah, blah, blah create life”, that stuff. And when comparing everything to Ymir, it’s a lot different. Explaining his reason for everything in the world regarding the creation and also, Ymir’s behavior with her being loyal to King Fritz despite that her sacrifice to save the King from an assassination attempt led to her having her body consumed by her three daughters and now, Ymir being on Eren’s side and Zeke was there when that happened. A front-row seat to the start of the apocalypse with him saying to Ymir that she’s not a slave and should be free, hence, why Eren got the keys to activate the Rumbling. And from picking up a dried leaf for Armin, which in Zeke’s perspective, a baseball, after a lot of talking, this is where we have the tides to turn.
Especially where you have Armin and Zeke coming across with a few past inheritors of their respective Titans that include Bertholdt, Grisha, Xaver, Porco, Marcel, Ymir (the one that we knew earlier in the series), and I’m guessing that Kruger...yep, that’s Kruger. Every past user came together to aid the Scouts in taking out the other Titans at the behest of Armin and Zeke coming into a mutual agreement. Of course, you had Armin apologizing to Bertholdt for taking his Titan and Zeke making his amends to Grisha for snitching on him and Dina, as well as Xaver for being unable to follow the plan of euthanizing the Eldians to end the bloodshed.
And it’s with that help thanks to the mutual agreement from Armin and Zeke that the Titans from the past inheritors decide to help the Scouts to take out the other Titans. To create an opening for the two fronts with one front going towards where the explosives that are wrapped on Eren’s neck is at and the other, an opening to get Armin. Armin being freed from captivity is the first item on the list and with Mikasa using her thunder spear, along with Gabi firing her rifle towards the pig-like titan, finally freeing Armin despite that his leg was caught by the tongue before using his thunder spears to finally put an end to that nightmare. And for the other front with the explosives...
Oh right, you have Levi finally being able to avenge Erwin when seeing Zeke in the open, and once his job is done to help Armin and the Scouts by having the past inheritors of the previous Nine Titans to make things easier for everyone, took four years but Levi finally took the fucker down with him leaving him open for him to decapitate Zeke. Finally got his dub, 3-1 against the guy or I guess 2-1 if you’re not going to include that small scuffle during the siege earlier in the season. And if that’s not enough, Levi chopping Zeke’s head off that killed him resulted in the switch for The Rumbling being turned off. Thus, ending the apocalyptic nightmare despite that Eren’s Titan keeps on going.
And the person who ends up finishing the job to end the final battle and killing off the protagonist turned antagonist, who would’ve thought that it would be Jean of all people to do the finishing job? There was some hesitation from him once he reached the neck and grabbed the detonator as if he didn’t want to do it because despite the kill count that Eren had since activating The Rumbling, this was his comrade through thick and thin, but everyone came into an agreement, including Jean, that Eren has to die to end the nightmare. And so, he did.
Finally putting an end to this whole mess and even though it’s hard that they had to put down their friend, it had to be the right call. Everyone leaves as Eren’s Titan comes crashing down, though not before a pesky little worm-like being makes a retreat from Eren’s body, and uh...yeah, it looks like the nightmare is over. The Warriors finally reunite with their families. Despite the loss of their friend, the Scouts can finally breathe a sigh of relief, not to mention, you had that brief moment where we might finally have the two races, the Eldians and the Marleyans, about to have some baby steps to end the cycle of hatred. And it does feels like a proper conclus-
Yeah, this fight, not yet over. And Jesus freaking fracking Christ, there’s no end to this fight. Eren refuses to die and decides to pull out one last bullshit out of his ass. Remember that worm-like being that left Eren’s body? Yeah, that fucker decided to release some mysterious gas out of its system and pollute the area around and into Fort Salta. And apparently, the gas that the creature spewed to pollute the air quality around the area that only affects the Eldians...the same gas that the villagers of Ragako dealt that turned them into Titans. Levi knew what the gas was capable of after hearing it from Zeke, resulting in him asking Mikasa, Pieck, Falco, and Annie to get out of dodge. Leaving the others, including Jean, Connie, and Gabi, to deal with the gas being inhaled into their systems, thus...turning them into Titans. And now, we can begin the final, final battle. But not before going into a fantasy courtesy of Mikasa having to deal with her migraine courtesy of her Ackerman powers.
In this fantasy, you had Eren and Mikasa living together in a cabin in the woods. Mikasa enjoying time outdoors and Eren chopping some wood. And in this fantasy coming from Mikasa, talking about a big what would’ve been moment where you have Eren and Mikasa dip right before Marley invades Paradis. Going into hiding and spend his remaining four years with Mikasa. So, I’m guessing this is going to boil down to the question of whether or not The Rumbling would’ve been prevented if Mikasa had just been honest with her feelings and confessed to Eren. And to answer that question...yes...but at the same time, no. I mean, yeah, we would not have the bloodshed that we have from Eren if Mikasa had just been honest, and maybe things would’ve caused him to be a genocidal psychopath. But at the same time, the countless bloodshed from the cycle of hatred would continue and I guess it would cause problems for Paradis when taking on an empire like Marley. It’s a complex system, man. And whether or not Mikasa would’ve been honest with her feelings would’ve prevented a genocide outside the walls, it would’ve been possible but the hatred coming from the outside world could intersect that.
So, now, we finally get to the final, final battle of the series with Armin and Eren duking it out one final time with Armin...well, getting his ass handed once more but Eren also getting his ass handed, so it’s a stalemate between the two. That’s one side of the coin and you have the other with Annie, Reiner, and Pieck trying to take down the worm-like being but are having trouble doing the job because of the abnormal titans, most of which being their family members along with Jean and Connie. But, it was the opening to get to Eren is the name of the game with Mikasa, despite dealing with the migraine, decides to have her shit together and now, we have ourselves a battle. Armin continues to pick a fight with Eren and despite the ground shaking courtesy of the two duking it out and despite the rubble flying from the ground to serve as hurdles, that’s not going to stop Mikasa, Levi, and Falco from making their way to where Armin and Eren are at with Levi creating an opening by blasting the thunder spear to open the mouth since the weak spot is inside the mouth where Eren’s head is at, causing Mikasa to make her way to the mouth, and gotta admit, the animation and visuals for this looks incredible bear witness with this final, final battle. Levi created an opening, causing Mikasa to go into the mouth, slicing Eren’s head without any hesitation, killing the guy, and uh...
Yeah, so that happened. Okay...I guess? I mean, this does look necrophilic with Mikasa kissing Eren’s chopped head with Ymir watching her doing that...okay? I mean, yeah, that’s the end of the battle and the end of Eren, and because he had the abilities of the Founding Titan, thus, ending the 2,000 years of Titan domination. But...I guess that’s one way of putting an end to the whole bloodshed, but this feels...uh...I guess weird for Mikasa to do that after putting an end to the bloodshed. I mean, hey, the animation and visuals for the opening to be created look great but this uh...fine, I guess.
Going over to Eren and Armin talking to each other to start the final chapter portion of this finale with Eren talking about why he did it that led to him committing a mass genocide. The reason why he decided to turn himself into the dark side is just to protect everyone and his homeland, even if it means severing a few...lots of ties all to serve as Paradis’ shield, even if it means committing a freaking war crime. Accepting his fate that he knew that him doing it would cause the consequences of his actions with what he was doing with The Rumbling that wiped out 80 percent of the world’s population, let me repeat myself, 80 percent of the population. Accepting his loss to Armin, Mikasa, and the others to end the bloodshed. But not before Armin does a little bit of trolling towards Eren that with him accepting his defeat, thus, accepting his death, Armin tells Eren that if he’s gone, Mikasa would most likely go to be with someone to spend the rest of her life with, mostly Jean. And yes, the end credits did have Mikasa and Jean together and having kids together. So, to summarize this scene and the conversation with Eren and Armin, it boils down to Eren realizing that he was acting like a dumbass who has an extreme amount of power and not knowing about the consequences that came with it, but that’s not going to stop Armin from finally putting aside the beef and yeah, that’s the end of Eren Jaeger.
This leads us to the next scene with Mikasa and Armin mourning over Eren with them holding Eren’s corpse with everyone turning back to normal with the Titan Shifters no longer having titan abilities in their possession thanks in part to Mikasa killing Eren, thus, ending the Founder’s influence. From Gabi and Falco finally going to have a childhood to Levi deciding to retire when seeing his fallen comrades one final time with the Titan domination coming to an end. As well as Jean and Connie seeing Sasha one final time to have some closure. However, thanks to Eren’s little ass pull that caused the worm-like being to release the gas to have the Eldians transform into Titans, you have the Marleyans pointing their guns at the Eldians and it’s back to square one for everyone. That is until Armin steps in and tries to calm the situation down by telling the Marleyans that he was the one who killed Eren, even though that was all Mikasa’s doing but he was the one who led the charge, so, something has to be done to make sure that this little confrontation doesn’t spiral.
And now, we finally reached the end of the episode and the series in general. Going into a time skip since that’s the norm now in most series finales. Amphibia did it last year, why not Attack on Titan? Oh, we’ll get to The Owl House soon. But we have a time skip after the events of The Rumbling with the creation of a new nation for Paradis, you have Armin and the others serving as ambassadors on their way to Paradis, though...Reiner...sniffing the letter that was written by Historia...no...just...just no. She’s married and has a kid. Control yourself. Other than that, you have Levi, Yelena, Onyankopon, Gabi, and Falco doing their own thing by volunteering to help the refugees who were displaced. And thus, here we are, with the screencap above, you have Mikasa sitting under the tree next to Eren’s grave where she was talking to Eren from his grave before starting to break down crying over the fact that he missed having him around. This leads us to the final scene of the episode with a bird helping Mikasa keep her scarf on, which I assume that’s Eren doing to wrap the scarf around her neck before flying off, and thus...that’s it. That’s the end of the series and despite the end credits with the world continuing to go through the cycle of hatred with the advancement of technology to the point where nuclear warfare had to be used, and finally, ending the episode with someone walking his dog and comes across the tree as if we’re about to re-live through the process all over again.
Yeah, I feel like series finales for shows that usually had a 21-22 minute run going for an hour-long are going to be the new norm. Because, oh boy, what a word-ful to put up with for this spot in the countdown. The animation and visuals looked amazing for the fights in this episode. The suspense and drama was nice. And I know that the ending to the series had some...problems when it first came out in the manga, though joke on y’all that I’m not a manga reader for this series, but when it comes to my thoughts on the finale, this was an alright finale. After watching this series in the past ten years, some might think that it’s not the best finale to end the series, but this was an alright finale. And Attack on Titan...it was quite the ride and now, the ride comes to an end and I gotta admit, I enjoyed the ride from start to finish and hopefully, knowing how popular this series was, this is a series that is going to be talked upon for a long time for generations to come. So, thank you, Attack on Titan for creating this ride and it was a fun experience that I won’t forget.
And with that, this ends the fourth spot in the Top 12 Countdown. What do you think about these sets of episodes? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 3 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Which episode and series will be taking the third spot? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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