The Rumbling (Episode)

The Rumbling (地鳴らし) is the 29th episode of the 4th season and the 88th episode overall of the Attack on Titan anime, produced by. It is the first of three episodes, available only on Japanese streaming services, that constitute the episodic version (各話版) of THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 1.

Overview
The march of Eren Jaeger and the Wall Titans reaches the Marleyan city of Liberio, killing most of its people. Eren has known since he first arrived in Marley that he would one day flatten this city, and feels trapped by a future he cannot change because to behave differently would not be in his nature. Still, there is a part of him that is satisfied by the destruction, and he reaches out to Armin Arlelt through the Paths to ask if he agrees.

Without answering, Armin snaps to his senses and finds himself on the deck of the ship carrying the remnants of the Scout Regiment and the Warriors to Odiha where they hope to prepare the flying boat. Annie Leonhart thanks him for the kindness he showed in visiting her while she was inside her crystal. The mood is emotionally awkward for both of them, with Annie realizing these are not feelings to have on the eve of genocide. She settles for calling Armin a "good person" both for comforting her and for trying to save Eren despite everything he has done, but Armin reminds her that he does not like being called that because he has killed a lot of people as well.

Summary
In the past, a young Eren Jaeger sits dozing under a tree and hears a short-haired Mikasa Ackermann tell him that she will see him later. Moments later, he wakes as if from a dream and Mikasa tells him they should head home from their task of gathering firewood. He does not remember the dream, but Mikasa points out that he is crying.

In present day Marley, Ramzi shows Halil his hidden stash of coins where he plans to stash money until the sack is full. That will be enough for everyone in their refugee camp to live somewhere better. However, Halil is more concerned about what will happen if Ramzi is caught. Ramzi has already lost his right hand. He could lose his left as well.

Ramzi is undeterred though. The winters are hard for the refugees, and people die every year, which is why he wants Halil to give this money to everyone if he dies.

When they hear people coming, they hurry to hide the money, but are surprised to see the people are Marleyans who seem to be fleeing the city. Then, the two boys feel a rumbling in the earth as the Wall Titans approach the port city to the east.

Some time ago, when Eren first visits Liberio, he already knows that someday in the future he will kill these people, and that he is predestined to do so. He figures it will be because they cannot find another way for Paradis Island to survive. Everything in Liberio would be gone; the people, their homes, their animals, and their children. He wonders what his mother would think and if it would be better for Eldians to die instead, as the King of the Walls had thought. But even if the death toll would be far smaller if the Eldians die to solve the Titan problem, he finds he cannot accept things ending that way.

Just then he hears a scuffle in an alley and realizes he has seen this group of thugs beating up a boy in his memories of the future. The thugs tell him that this has nothing to do with him and he initially agrees. Despite knowing that his instinct is to save the boy, he finds the thought disagreeable with the knowledge that in the future he will kill him as well. Despite his feelings of hypocrisy, he saves Ramzi and concludes that the future does not change. Though Ramzi is grateful, Eren tearfully apologizes. He says the world outside the Walls is different from what he dreamed of, and he was disappointed, wanting to wipe everything away.

Back in the present, Ramzi's family calls for him and Halil because they have begun to flee the Titans. The refugees plan to head for the mountains, but Wall Titans have surmounted them and are coming from that direction as well. The refugees return to the city to find another avenue of escape. During the chaos, Ramzi's sack flies open, spilling its contents, and Halil turns back to save the money. Ramzi goes back for him, but the two boys are caught in the path of the oncoming Titans. Halil is killed by flying debris and Ramzi is crushed to death.

In a prison, Jaeger and his wife feel the shaking and know something is terribly wrong. No one answers his cries and she believes Judgment Day has come for them.

As Eren guides the Wall Titans in their march, he considers how there has always been a wall of some kind before him. Armin Arlelt used to tell him of fantastic lands beyond the Walls, and Eren would imagine the people who could witness such things would be the freest people in the world. Now he has arrived at that view, and it is littered with the bodies of those crushed by the Titans.

Undeterred, his inner child turns to ask Armin if he agrees with him, and an adult Armin finds himself in the Paths with this child Eren.

Armin snaps out of it and finds himself back on the ship heading to Marley when Annie Leonhart asks him if his wounds are healed. He says they have and she asks him to sit next to her. She thanks him for having talked to her all those years she was inside her crystal. Hearing from him and Hitch Dreyse were her only joys inside her confinement, but she does not understand why Armin chose to spend that time with her.

He looks away and blushes, saying that he just wanted to see her. Annie presses him for a more concrete reason, to Armin's confusion and surprise, but when he looks at her sitting with her face up to her knees he sees that she is blushing as well and breaks off. She is uncertain why she is having these thoughts, when thousands if not millions of people are dying right now.

Annie then concludes that he only talked to her because he is a good person, the same person who even now would prefer to talk things out with Eren despite his friend's attempt to massacre the world. She gets up to leave, but Armin stops her, reminding her that he hates being called a "good person" given that he has killed so many people.

He still thinks about the outside world he and Eren wanted to explore as children. Like Eren he found it a much different place than he thought it would be, but he still hopes there is something that they do not already know about.

The Doomsday Titan
''A Titan with a body that is more than colossal, with a total length of several hundred meters. Unlike traditional Titans, most of its gigantic body is made up of bones. The countless ribs that extend from the vertebrae become the legs of the giant body, which continues to advance, swaying slowly from side to side, regardless of land or sea. It brings along countless Titans. This Titan, which has swallowed the Attack Titan, the War Hammer Titan, the Founding Titan, and the Beast Titan, would be able to control all Eldians if its inheritor wished to do so.''

Trivia

 * In this episode, the seventh opening "The Rumbling" was replaced by the eighth opening, "Saigo no Kyojin".