No one knows how they feel about Eren Yeager at this point. Our main character wants to destroy everything.
He has a reason, but is it a good one?
So, why did he start the rumbling?
Fans are unsure whether they can trust Eren’s intentions now that he has the power of the Founding Titan.
Eren plans to start a full-scale disaster that will kill everyone who doesn’t live on Eldia, aka Paradis Island.
As more episodes of the second half of the final season come out, Eren slowly becomes a full-fledged lousy guy.
Some fans have strong opinions about Eren and the Rumbling even though they don’t understand it very well.
Attack on Titan is not an easy series to understand because there are a lot of time paradoxes and plot twists in it.
In this article, I explain everything there is to know about the rumbling, including what it is, why Eren does it if it can be stopped, and what happens next.
What is Rumbling in Attack on Titan?
In “Attack on Titan,” the Rumbling is a time when the huge Wall Titans that have been trapped in the walls of Paradis Island are set free. This causes a lot of death and destruction.
Karl Fritz first used the Rumbling as a threat against everyone who wasn’t an Eldian.
After pulling back his forces, letting the Marleyans take over, and retreating to Paradis with the rest of the Eldians, he tells the rest of the world that if they try to attack Eldia, he will use the Founding Titan’s powers to destroy the world.
He had locked up thousands of Wall Titans in the Rose, Maria, and Sheena Walls of Paradis Island. When they were freed from the Walls, their huge feet could crush whole cities.
The Marleyans didn’t attack the Eldians because of this request. Fritz erased the memories of the people inside the walls. As a result, the Eldians forgot about their past and had no idea what the rumbling was.
People thought the Walls were just made of stone for a long time. It wasn’t until Eren and Annie fought that they found out the truth.
How can Eren start the Rumbling by himself?
During the Surprise Raid on Paradise, Gabi cuts off Eren’s head, and Zeke catches Eren’s head before he dies.
The two of them are taken to the Paths Realm, where Eren says that he never meant to follow Zeke’s plan to kill everyone and that his goal was always to save the people of Paradis by killing everyone else.
Eren gets Ymir Fritz to give him all of the Founding Titan’s power by promising to set her free.
Let me also talk about how Eren, who is not of Royal Blood, is still able to have the Founding Titan.
It wasn’t until he talked to Zeke, his brother from another mother, that he found out. Dina Fritz was Zeke’s mom. She was from the original Fritz family, which was called “Royal Blood.”
This is why Hange says that Eren absorbs Zeke in the most recent episode, which is called “Pride.” Eren’s head was in Zeke’s hands.
When Eren gets the power of the Founding Titan, it shows up around him and, by extension, around Zeke.
Why does Eren Start the Rumbling?
In “Attack on Titan,” Eren starts the Rumbling to save his home, Paradis, by killing a lot of people around the world.
But this is only what it looks like. Eren wanted or had to start the Rumbling for a much more complicated reason.
Let’s look at the Rumbling from 4 main points of view:
The Future Being Set in Stone
When Eren kisses Historia’s hand, everything starts to happen. Eren connects to the Paths and gets the memories of all the people who have held the Founding Titan in the past, including his father.
He also sees the Rumbling’s future and how everything must happen for it to happen, or how the future affects the past so that the future can happen.
He also sees that Eren from the year 854 can convince his father to do things that will make the Rumbling happen. Both the past and the future were always supposed to go the way they did.
Eren could follow in the steps of his future self because he could see what he would do. He always knew that the Rumbling would happen, that it “was the only way.”
This is also why he laughs when Sasha dies. It shows him that the future was set in stone and that no matter what he or anyone else did, it would always be the same.
So Eren starts the Rumbling because it was his fate to do so. So to speak, the path was set.
Nationalism and Personal Agenda
This is because Eren has very extreme ideas about how to protect his home country.
When it comes out in Shiganshima that people live outside the Walls, Eren’s goals become clearer. His core beliefs are shaken, and he grows to hate the Titans very much.
Because of the Curse of Ymir, he has seen many innocent people die because of the mistakes their ancestors made. He lost his friends and fellow soldiers, like Marco, as well as the Levi Squad who died protecting him.
Eren wanted to save his people, Armin and Mikasa in particular. He chose to save Paradise Island and the people he loved even though it would mean saving the whole world.
I’m not a big fan of this line of thinking, but it seems to say that Eren wanted to free the people of Paradis and had no choice but to start the Rumbling.
When he talks to Ymir’s Subjects through telepathy, he tells them that he wants to protect his people, but that the world outside the Walls won’t stop until they are all dead.
In chapter 131, he meets Ramzi, a Marleyan refugee boy, and tells him that when he found out people lived outside the Walls, he was so upset that he wanted to kill everyone.
He says sorry to the kid because he knows that Rumbling is the only way and that it has already happened in the future.
Freedom from the Titans
All of the pain, blood, and death started with the Titans’ power. When Ymir Fritz became the first Titan and got the power of the Founding Titan, she lost all of her free wills. She was enslaved by the Royal Blood and lived in fear, even after she died, as Eren finds out when he goes with Zeke into the Paths Realm.
Eldia became hated because of how powerful the Titans were. The Titans ruled over the Marleyans until they took over their power (except for the Founder), and then the Marleyans did the same thing to the Eldians.
The Titans brought hate and destruction into the world. They also spread lies and kept secrets, which hurt everyone the same amount.
Eren wanted to start the Rumbling so that he and his people, the Eldians and the Marleyans, could get away from the strange hold that Titan fate had on them. He saw how Ymir, Zeke, his father, the Marleyan Warriors, Mikasa, Armin, and the young people of Paradis were all forced to play their parts.
Only by starting the Rumbling could he get the freedom he so badly wanted. He’s not a crazy, murderous bad guy; he’s just a man with the power to get rid of the Titans’ superhuman strength.
Ending the Cycle of Hate
For those who have read the manga, Eren knew he was going to die. He started the Rumbling to end the fight between the two world powers, the terrible war that never ends, and the cycle of hate.
Even enemies come together when the world is about to end. Eren brought the Eldians and the Marleyans together by giving his life. Both sides were fighting against the Founding Titan, who could have killed everyone on Earth.
Yes, Eren did kill 80% of the people, but the people who were still alive knew that it was an Eldian who killed Eren. Eren knew that when the time came, Mikasa would kill him.
So, when Armin and Mikasa came to talk to him, this is why he acted the way he did. He needed them to hate him and think he could kill a lot of people, which he could.
Only the Ackermans and the 9 Titans were left after the Founding Titan turned every Eldian into a Pure Titan. The only person who knew how to stop the Founder was Mikasa.
So, if you follow this line of thought, Eren is a martyr. Because of what he did, the Titans and the terrible cycle of hate that had been going on for hundreds of years were no more.
How can the Rumbling be stopped?
The Rumbling can be stopped, but Eren isn’t the one who does it. Instead, Levi stops it by accident. Zeke, who is of Royal Blood, is the only way for Eren to use the power of the Founding Titan.
The only way to stop the Rumbling is to kill Zeke, who has been eaten by Eren, the Founding Titan, who is a spine creature.
When Levi sees Zeke coming out of Eren’s spine, he cuts off his head right away. This stops the rumbling.
Eren had to keep touching Zeke to use the Founder’s ability, just like he could control the Scream’s ability by touching the Smiling Titan.
When Zeke’s head is cut off, he can’t talk to the Founder anymore, so the rumbling ends by itself.
