The Battle of Heaven and Earth (Episode)

"If Eren only intends to keep moving forward, as he put it, then this resistance is the Founder Ymir's will. Which means Ymir wants to slaughter humanity too. The Founder Ymir is invincible. There's nothing I can do. Is this... where it all... ends?"

- Armin ponders Ymir's power and motives as his consciousness fades

The Battle of Heaven and Earth (天と地の戦い) is the 32nd episode of the 4th season and the 91st episode overall of the Attack on Titan anime, produced by. It is the first of four episodes, available only on Japanese streaming services, that constitute the episodic version (各話版) of Special 2.

Overview
The Scouts and Warriors begin their battle on the back of Eren Jaeger's Founding Titan, only for Armin Arlelt to be captured by a member of a previous generation of the Nine Titans under the Founder's control. While his friends try to figure out a plan to save him, Pieck Finger attempts to decapitate Eren's Titan with explosives, only to have her Cart Titan impaled and lifted away by a familiar War Hammer Titan.

Falco Grice arrives in a new winged version of his Jaw Titan, which carries most of the team out of harm's way and reunites them with Annie Leonhart and Gabi Braun. Levi Ackermann divides the group into two teams to rescue Armin and to attack the nape. The sight of Falco's flying Titan inspires the Marleyan military at Fort Salta to keep fighting, but they are soon distracted by the arrival of the Eldian refugees from Liberio.

Summary
The flying boat emerges through the clouds, though its flight is uneven and jerky, since it is on the last of its fuel. Onyankopon tells everyone to get ready to jump, but refuses to go with them since he wants to make sure he gets them over the Founder. He dodges an attack from the Beast Titan and Armin Arlelt orders everyone target it to stop the Rumbling.

They dive out once Onyankopon flies low enough and use their ODM gear to grapple on. Reiner Braun transforms into the Armored Titan and tackles the replica Beast Titan, snapping it free of the tether that connects it to the Founding Titan. Pieck Finger also transforms and lands, with the explosives taken from the flying boat now strapped across her Cart Titan's torso.

Armin realizes he still has one question for Eren Jaeger once they drag him out of his Titan, and that is in what way is Eren free.

The group soon realizes that the Beast Titan they defeated is an empty husk that withers beneath the Armored Titan. Armin surmises that Zeke Jaeger must be using the same method as the War Hammer Titan to hide his actual location. Given the size of the Founding Titan, Armin plans to transform into the Colossal Titan to blow apart its body, which might give them a clue as to where Eren and Zeke might be hiding.

As the others get out of the way and charge ahead, Armin steels himself to confront Eren. However, another Titan takes advantage of his momentary distraction to grab him, wedging its prehensile tongue in Armin's mouth to prevent him from screaming or injuring himself to transform. It then swallows Armin and flees while Ymir watches.

Mikasa Ackermann shouts his name, causing the rest of their group to turn around and realize that there are more grayish Titans emerging from the spines on the Founder's back. They recognize these are not ordinary Pure Titans, and Conny Springer realizes they will run out of Thunder Spears if they try fighting them all.

Since Armin did not transform, they know he is unharmed, but the Titan that grabbed him has run to the rear of the Founding Titan with numerous other Titans between them and Armin. Levi Ackermann warns Mikasa to stay under control rather than charging in. He intends to act as bait to draw them away, but Pieck stops him, saying that she has figured out what they are facing. These Titans appear to be replicas of past generations of the Nine Titans, though she is uncertain whether it is just their bodies or if their minds are there as well. It is possible the Founder could make as many of them as it wants.

Unconcerned about Armin's need to talk to Eren, Pieck dashes through the Titans, dodging their attacks as she runs not towards the tail, but the head and the nape of the Founding Titan. She has only one aim, and loops the explosives around the neck of the Founder. Pieck partially emerges from the back of her Titan so she can push the detonator and set off the explosives, but before she can, her Titan is speared and lifted into the air by the massive trident of a familiar War Hammer Titan. This causes her to drop the detonator. The Jaw Titans of the deceased Galliard brothers also appear and join the fray.

On the ground at Fort Salta, Commander Müller recognizes that even though the forces from Paradis Island have engaged the Founding Titan, they have done nothing to slow its speed. He orders his units to fire on the enemy with cannons. Though they lost most of their soldiers in the failed bombing run, he sees no reason not to try given how hard the others are fighting on the back of the Founder.

As the Scouts and Warriors fight against previous generations of the Nine Titans, Armin struggles to stay conscious, wondering if Eren really intends to suffocate him to death, but he remembers seeing Ymir and concludes that this is not Eren's, but her doing. She approves of Eren's slaughter of humanity and thus is interfering with them, and Armin can do nothing to stand against her.

Above him, an apparition of Bertholdt Hoover sheds a tear.

Outside, Bertholdt's Colossal Titan appears above the battlefield, gray like the others connected to the Founding Titan. It grabs Reiner's Armored Titan and bites the head off before hurling the body down at the Founder's ribcage. The Scouts are scattered by the resulting impact, with most of them falling off the spines and into the ribcage. Reiner survives, though his ODM gear is broken, as is Jean Kirschtein's. He tells Jean to drop him since he can transform once more, but Jean refuses, knowing that even the Armored Titan will be trampled by the Colossal Titans marching below. Jean does not believe they have much of a chance, but reminds Reiner that they are Scouts who do not know when to quit.

Mikasa struggles to keep her friends safe when Jean and Reiner cannot move, and Levi and Conny are surrounded. She draws on a reserve of strength to continue fighting when Falco Grice's now winged Jaw Titan swoops in behind her. It is carrying a net on its back. Holding on to it are Gabi Braun and Annie Leonhart, who help bring the Scouts and Reiner on to Falco's back so he can carry them to the relative safety of the air outside of the Founder's body.

The two groups are surprised to see each other. Annie tells everyone that Falco's transformation sunk the Azumabito ship, but Kiyomi was still willing to let them try it, so they plan to repay her by stopping the Rumbling. When she asks where Armin is, Mikasa tells her that Armin was captured and they need her help. Pieck is also in need of assistance, having been isolated from the others during her rush to blow up the Founder's nape.

Levi divides their group into two teams; one to rescue Armin and the other to attack the nape. Mikasa hesitates though, not wanting to give up on Eren. Conny reminds her that without Falco's ability to fly they would already be dead. Jean and Levi also admit that they are at their limit, not because they want to give up on Eren, but because they are out of options. Seeing that Mikasa is freezing up beneath the weight of the group's decision to kill Eren, Annie tells her to focus on rescuing Armin.

The sight of the Jaw Titan flying overhead and then sweeping back around for another pass at the Founding Titan reinvigorates the Marleyan soldiers at Fort Salta and they prepare what few cannons they can to assist. But before they can fire, they spot refugees heading toward them, and from the unfaded parts of their left sleeves, the soldiers realize they are Eldian. Both sides raise their rifles, and Annie's father unsuccessfully tries to defuse the situation, explaining that they are only seeking treatment for their injured.

The Nine Titans of previous generations
''Eren, who holds the Attack, the Founding, the War Hammer, and the Beast Titans, is connected to the Founder Ymir. The Founder Ymir is connected to the Paths, and there are infinite Paths. There is no fixed time in the Paths, all kinds of time exist. And so, Titans from all time were summoned. Colossal, Armored, Female, Jaw, Beast, Cart, War Hammer, Attack, and Founding Titans. Some of them are Titans we know, others ones we have never seen.''