Attack on Titan has been one of the most anticipated shows in 2021. The release of its last season’s first part caused huge waves in the anime community.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all social media platforms were swarmed with posts of people watching the anime every Sunday. It was crazy!
Part 1 of Season 4 ends on a cliffhanger and so many people, including me, read the manga. I mean I was not able to control myself and wanted to know how the series ends.
Since Part 2 of the last season has been announced in January 2022 we have got to first deal with the ending of part 1 and understand it so that we can enjoy part 2.
In this article, we are having a look at the ending of Season 4 Part 1, and what we can expect from Part 2.
Also, we are gonna look at the Manga which has already been completed so *SPOILER ALERT* in the last section of this article.
Let’s get started!
Attack on Titan Anime Ending Explained
The last season of AOT, Season 4 has two parts, the first of which ended with 16 episodes airing every Sunday since December 2020 and it is said the second part will have 10-16 episodes too.
The final episode of the first part was a massive cliffhanger and I just couldn’t get enough of the show, so I started reading the manga but in this section, we are focusing on just the anime.
The Beginning
The season started with an episode called, “The Other Side of the Sea”. The first few episodes explained the situation of the rest of the world beyond the island.
It explained how Marley worked as a country, the discrimination Eldians living in Marley faced, and how their kids were brainwashed to think that dying in service of Marleyans was their sole duty. Eldians living in Marley were trained from a young age to serve the country.
Among the young Eldians, some are chosen to inherit the Titans that Marley possessed or should I say stole from Eldia. Young Eldians like Gabi were taught nothing about the Eldian history, how Titans came to life and the feud between Eldia and Marley that started centuries ago.
In the fifth episode, we witness the opposite of what happened in the first episode of the very first season. On the attack, this time was Eren and Eldians and Marley suffered when Eren appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the festival.
To be honest, it was so rewarding to see Marleyan soldiers at the mercy of Eldians when under attack by Eldians themselves. It was the best moment of the season for me, to see that look in Gabi’s eyes, the same look Eren had when his mother was eaten in front of him.
The Final Episodes
In the final episode of Part 1 Season 4, Eren captures Pieck and Gabi and forces them to rat out their comrades but instead, he is betrayed and this time Marley attacks Paradis Island in an attempt to retake the Founding Titan from Eren Jaeger.
Paradis was under attack once again and this time all of Marley was supporting the Honorary Eldians. Eren faced all of them.
The season ends as the Jaw Titan tries to eat Eren but fails. Eren turns into his Titan gets ready to battle Reiner and the others.
Fan Theories
A cliffhanger like that is prone to some imaginative fan theories. There have been a tonne of them circulating explaining how the anime is gonna end.
As I have already read the manga, I know how it ends but let’s check out some fan theories from the non-readers.
One of the most fascinating theories is that Eren will turn into a TItian God. Basically, it is theorized that Eren will eat all eight other titans and ascend humanity and become a god-like figure.
Another superb one is that there has to be Time Travel. There was one incident with Eren Kruger, the guy who had Attack Titan way back in Marley. Eren Kruger knew the names of Mikasa and Armin? How could he know their names and what could cause him to wish them a good life?
The best-selling fan theory out there is that Eren knows the future and the past and that he is the one that will free Ymir from her binding spot at the Coordinate. Eren is the one that knows the value of true freedom and is the only one that can achieve something like this and all of the Attack Titans before he knew this.
Attack on Titan Manga Ending Explained
All the fans that just watch the anime steer clear of this section and watch out for spoilers. You have been warned!
Isayama completed the anime in May 2021, releasing the final issue of the Shonen Jump classic. The manga has broken a lot of records and has been best-selling manga in Japan for some stretches.
The whole picture of the manga revolved around Ymir and the irony that the strongest titan in the history of Eldia was still a slave to the Eldian King.
Ymir, if she wanted to could have destroyed the king that tried to kill her and enslaved her entire village but after getting the Titan powers she still returned back to him as his slave.
The Attack Titan has powers that let them see the future through the eyes of other Attack Titans and also let them see and manipulate the past using these powers. You guessed it! All of this was Eren all along.
He was the one that forced his father to interrupt the Royal Families’ ritual and take the Founding Titan from the Royal Family.
He was also the one that forced his own father to inject baby Eren with the spinal fluid and take the Founding Titan and the Attack Titan by eating his own father.
He did all this for freedom. He was the only one that understood the definition of freedom and paradise. He was the only one that offered a fair choice to Ymir and treated her as a woman of free will instead of forcing his own will upon her. He set Ymir free from the Coordinate.
But in the end, Eren had to sacrifice himself and all the titans in order to set the world free of this horrible power and thus render the people who misused this horrible power, helpless and alone.
Titans could have been a gift to the world but the people of Eldia and Marley treated them as weapons and material of powers instead of humans and so they suffered.
The Ending of AOT
Ymir joined forces with Eren and ate Zeke so that Eren could carry on his own will and suppress Zeke with Ymir’s powers but still use the Founding Titan.
Ymir also ate Armin and he ended up at the coordinate beyond the plane of life and death where all the Titans are connected to each other.
Armin convinces Zeke to not give up and find out a way to get out of the ethereal plane and together they did. All the titans got their free will and emerged from Eren’s Titan form, Zeke did the same. Zeke took a breath of sigh and his head was cut off of his body, wielding the blade was Levi Ackermann.
The rumbling stopped because Eren could no longer use the Founding Titan without Zeke being in touch with him. The creature came out of Eren’s body. With Eren and the Founding Titan separated, Armin wanted to keep it that way and tried to keep Eren away from it.
He was backed up by his friends and together they attacked Eren in his Titan form. They opened up his mouth using, Mikasa entered in and slashed Eren’s head away with one swift blow.
Watching Mikasa kill the person she adored and lover more than anyone, Ymir realized what true freedom was. Eren had erased all of their memories of him talking to them and telling them how Mikasa is the one that would save him and get rid of all Titans from Earth.
When everyone remembered it after Eren’s death they were all saddened by the lengths he’d go to for his friends and their freedom.
The steps he took, the way he behaved was all for his friends and their long lives. He sought freedom in that and so he got his own freedom!
