Updated April 1, 2023 by Ernie
Introduction
The Rumbling is a disastrous phenomenon that occurs when the true powers of the founding titans are awakened and the titans concealed in the walls of the island of Paradis march out to destroy the entire world.
Table of Contents
In Attack on Titan, this event occurs when Eren convinces Ymir to become free and make a decision for herself. That is when Eren awakens the powers of the founding titan and turns into a humongous titan that is exclusively made of bones and he marches along with the titans that were trapped in the walls of the island of Paradis.
This even leads to the destruction of most of the continents on earth and also ends up wiping out 80% of humanity. It is the most cataclysmic event that has ever taken place in the history of the Attack on Titan verse. If you want to know where to read the manga after the anime adaptaion of this series, you can definitely check our blog on where to start Attack on Titan manga after the anime!
Information
Description
Year: 854
Location: Paradis Island
Hizuru
Marley
Rest of the world
Character Participants: Eren Yaeger
Marleyan Military Units
Global Alliance
Survey Corps
Source of all living matter
Ymir Fritz
Result: Annihilation of more than 50% of the earth’s population
Death of several Survey Corps members
Zeke and Eren Yaeger’s death
End of the power of the titans
Appearance in anime/manga
Manga Debut: Chapter 112
Anime Debut: Episode 80
History
The First Titan
The powers of the founding titan first came into play when Ymir inherited it from an unknown animal species that were inherently found in water bodies. In Ymir’s past, she used to be a slave for the 104th king of the eldians. One day, one of the other slaves let one of the pigs escape the pig sty. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 122]
When the king asked for the culprit all of the slaves pointed at Ymir. To punish her, the king set her free and set out a few hounds behind her. While being chased by the hounds she falls into a water body inside a hollow tree. The ancient water species (that gave Ymir the titan powers) stuck itself to Ymir, which forced Ymir to turn into a titan. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 122]
Ymir followed every order that the eldian king gave her. She cultivated roads, built wasteland, and made bridges. Later she was ordered to attack the people of Marley. She then gave birth to three children-Maria, Rose and Sheena (or Sina in the anime). Later the Eldian king is ambushed and attacked by one of his followers by a spear. Ymir then tries to protect him and she gets impaled by the spear and dies.[Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 122]
The Eldian King forced her children to eat her to pass on her powers to her Children. The Eldian king commands the daughters to have children and pass on the powers of the founding titan-Ymir Fritz. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 122]
Karl Fritz – Traitor of Paradis
The 145th king of the Eldian dynasty decided to put an end to this war. He built three walls-Maria, Rose, Sina(or Sheena) which were filled with colossal titans. He brought all the people of Eldia and the members of the royal family to a secluded island called Paradis and he used countless colossal titans to form the three walls. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 100]
“The Eldian king didn’t want war and wanted peace” was an opin. However, if the peace inside the walls was threatened by Marley, he would attack the entirety of the world with the colossal Titans via a process called the rumbling where the Earth would start shaking because of the march of the colossal titans along with the founding titan who has inherited the powers of Ymir Fritz. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 100]
However, Karl Fritz bore the guilt of his ancestors and felt that Eldia had oppressed the Marley’s for too long. So he planned to betray his own people, the people of Eldia, by joining hands with the Tybur family(the family that had kept the war hammer titan with them for generations). [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 100]
To redeem himself, his ancestors, and the people of Eldia he made sure that the powers of the founding titan remained within his bloodline and when Marley was strong enough to defeat Eldia they would merely accept this fact and sacrifice themselves to undo the evil deeds committed by their ancestors. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 100]
Karl Fritz also altered the memories of the citizens of Paradis. He also changed the name of the royal family from “Fritz” to “Reiss”. He did this to make sure that no one would interfere with his plan to exterminate the Eldians. However, two clans remained unaffected by the powers of Karl Fritz and these two clans were called the “Ackermans” and the Azumabito clan. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 69]
Historia is the last member of the Reiss family after her father Rod Reiss passed away. However, she was never given the powers of the founding titan. This happened because Grisha stole the powers of the founding titan from the Reiss family and transferred them to Eren after Eren’s first titan form consumed Grisha. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 121]
The Rumbling’s First Reference
During the fight between Eren’s titan and Annie’s titan, a portion of the wall was exposed and a titan’s face was seen. This created unease between the public and the survey corps. Later, the survey corps covered it from sunlight (because Titan’s source of energy is sunlight). By looking at that face, Hange Zoe came to the conclusion that all the three walls were made of Titans. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 33, last page]
Eren Kisses Historia’s Hand and Paradis’s Preparation for War
After defeating the beast titan, recapturing Shiganshina and learning about the secrets hidden in Eren’s basement, Commander Pixis along with the other top officials of the military discuss the diary left by Eren’s father. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 89] Later, a memorial ceremony is held for the deceased and members of the scouts are awarded medals. Before Eren receives the medal he keeps questioning the diary and his decisions. He also isn’t ready to sacrifice Historia. As soon as Eren touches Historia’s hand, his dad’s past starts playing in his head and all the memories of the future. This is the part that changed everything in the story. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 90]
One year after the ceremony, a mysterious organization which was later revealed to be an anti-Marley organization visits Paradis. Their leader was Yelena who is interested in Eren and the powers of the founding titan. She is also working under Zeke and Zeke was the one who arranged this meeting. Eren also tells everyone that Zeke is a member of the Fritz family. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 106]
He also tells them that Zeke’s mother, Dina Fritz, was the reason why he was able to control the titans. With the help of this organization, Zeke wanted to come in contact with his half brother, Eren, to use the rumbling as a countermeasure should Marley attack Paradis with their entire military might.[Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 106]
Later, an official from the Azumabito family, Kiyomi Azumabito, proposed a plan. She wanted Historia to carry Zeke’s child and threaten the people of Marley with the rumbling for half a century till Paradis could get technologically advanced and have enough machinery to kill titans (as seen in the war between Marley and the Middle East). However, Eren was against this plan because he didn’t want to sacrifice Historia. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 107]
Later, Eren meets up with Yelena and explains Zeke’s real plan. He tells her that Zeke is planning to euthanize the subjects of Ymir. He would do this to bring an end to the war and suffering that the subjects of Ymir have been facing for a long time. According to Zeke, this was the perfect way to gain freedom. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 130]
However, Eren tells Floch that he would end all the enemies of Paradis and that he would only pretend to follow Zeke’s plan and that he wanted to erase the existence of all other human beings for the sake of freedom. Floch is extremely moved by Eren’s motivation and plan and hence decides to follow him. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 130]
After the Libero incident, Armin explains that if they use Eren to awaken titans in the walls and cause a partial rumbling and wipe out the military of the nations that are coming to destroy Paradis, they can maintain peace for the next 50 years and get technologically advanced. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 118]
Marley’s Preparation for War
Zeke teamed up with the Tybur family (he was just pretending to be on their side) and asked him to antagonize Eren in front of the world. Willy Tybur, the head of the Tybur family explained the entire history between the people of Paradis and the people of Marley. He then shifted his speech from the ancient relationship between Paradis and Marley to Eren Jaeger. He told the world that keeping Eren alive would be the reason for the downfall of Marley. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 100]
As soon as he finishes the speech Eren attacks the podium and eats Willy Tybur and then proceeds to kill the officials from other countries. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 101]
Participants
Eren Yeager
Levi Ackerman
Armin Arlert
Mikasa Ackerman
Zeke Yeager
Reiner Braun
Peick Finger
Annie Leonhart
Jean Kirstein
Hange Zoe
Gabi Braun
Ymir Fritz
Grisha Jaeger
Connie Springer
Falco Grice
Porco Galliard
Marcel Galliard
Yelena
Ramzi
Kiyomi Azomabito
Tom Ksaver
Director Muller
Bertholdt Hoover
Karina Braun
Plot
The first contact between brothers was established after Gabi shoots Eren in the neck and his head falls in Zeke’s hand. After this Eren and Zeke’s consciousness is transferred to the “Path”. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 120]
After convincing Ymir that she isn’t a slave and that the world needs to be destroyed, Ymir gives Eren the powers of the founding titan and a spine-like thing connects Eren’s body to his head and he transforms into a humongous titan which resembles a skeleton. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 122]
Armin tells everyone that Eren is on their side, however, he is confused as to why all the titans from the three walls have been awakened. Then all the people of Paradis hear Eren’s voice, where he says that he wants to protect the residents of Paradis, the place where he grew up from the outside world. He also tells them that the Wall Titans will rampage around the Earth, crushing all life in their way until every human has been dealt with.[Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 124]
The entire world feels the ground shaking and all of them are at unease. The members of the corps question Eren’s actions and come to the conclusion that Eren is doing all of this for them because they are important to him. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 124] However, the titans that Zeke created are not under Eren’s control and start destroying Paradis. All of the remaining soldiers start killing those titans and they die in a few minutes(or panels). [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 124]
While the rumbling continues the Jaegerist, under the leadership of Floch, keep guarding the island. Later, Theo Magath and Pieck encounter Hange and Levi. Hange proposes to combine forces to stop the Rumbling. They are joined by Mikasa, Armin, Annie, Connie, Reiner, Falco, and Gabi. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 127] If you are enjoying this series, you may want to check our list of best Attack on Titan episodes!
They then attack the harbor from where the Azumabito family’s head was taken over by Floch. Keith Shadis and Theo Magath sacrifice themselves to let the rest of the group advance. From there they move to Odiha to board a plane. The World Union fleet tries to stop the rumbling, however, they are wiped out in a few moments. We also see a flashback in which Eren says that the ones who have seen the outside world are the freest and that what he is doing right now is what freedom looks like. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 130]
While the allied group is en route to Odiha, Armin meets Eren in the path. Eren and Armin have a talk where Eren tells Armin that the point of the rumbling was to turn his friend’s from devils to heroes in the eyes of the people of the world. He wanted the people of Paradis to be like the Tybur Family. Eren also tells Armin that eighty percent of the human population would be wiped out and that they wouldn’t be able to retaliate against Paradis. He explains that the one who freed Ymir from her agony was Mikasa. Eren then confesses his feelings for Mikasa and tells Armin that he loves Mikasa and he doesn’t want to see her with another man. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 139]
He tells Armin that he doesn’t want to die and that he wants to be with his friends. Armin thanks Eren and Eren alters his memories so that he forgets everything that happened, however, he would remember everything after the rumbling ends. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 139]
When they reach Odiha, they find the plane, however, Floch shoots a few bullets in the fuel tank and the repair is said to take another hour. Floch is killed by Mikasa and at that instant, they hear the ground shaking aka the rumbling. Hange then decides to buy them time by sacrificing her life and she also makes Armin the fifteenth commander of the Scouts.[Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 132] Do you want to know what lies the end of the story of this series, you can check our blog about the ending of Attack on Titan manga!
While on the plane, Reiner tells the allied group that Eren wants the allied group to stop him. At that instance, their consciousness is transferred to the path. Eren tells them that he won’t stop the rumbling as he cannot risk Paradis’s future. He believes that they are free to stop him and he is free to cause the rumbling. He also tells them that the only way to stop this genocide is by killing him. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 132 and 133]
The Eldians from Marley start to escape the internment zone by using a steam engine(a train). When they hear the rumbling they stop the train and watch the Marleyan airships bomb the colossal titans and pray for Marley’s victory. As Eren closes in on Marley, the higher officials promise to put an end to the hatred that had caused Eren to start the rumbling. However, the airship is destroyed in an instant. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 134]
The allied group reaches Eren’s titan form and jumps from the plane and attacks his skeleton titan form. However, Eren uses the powers of Ymir Fritz to call forth the previous users of the nine titans. This proves to be futile as the nine titans of the past times were extremely strong and overpowered the allied group. With no choice left Gabi, Annie and Falco arrive on Falco’s titan form and save the allied group from falling. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 135] Can’t get enough of this series? Well, we can recommend you our Attack on Titan Filler list guide to satisfy your AOT cravings!
As everyone is analyzing their situation, they come to a decision that they have to kill Eren and not go easy on him. They merely survived because Falco arrived in time. They decide to blow Eren’s neck by using explosives. Gabi objects to their decision and tells them that they should attack the true form of the founding titan(the spine-like creature that popped out of Eren). They then form two teams– one will focus on killing Eren and the other will focus on saving Armin. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 136]
During the fight, Levi comes to terms with the decision of saving Armin instead of Erwin. Armin who was unconscious realized that he was in the path. He meets Zeke in the path and asks him to help them defeat Eren [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 136]. Zeke replies that every species is going to die so what difference would be helping them now, make. Armin tells Zeke about those meaningless moments that they spent together and that they were actually precious memories that they made. Zeke is reminded of his own teacher who was a father figure in his life.[Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 137]
The previous titan users like Grisha, Bertholdt, Porco, and the others assist the allied group in bringing down the titans of the past. Zeke then taunts Levi to kill him. Levi jumps in the air and slices Zeke’s head and the rumbling stops. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 137] The other team blows off Eren’s head from his spine. A spine-like creature pops out of his spine and tries to reattach itself to Eren’s head, however, Reiner holds the creature and knocks it off to Eren’s titan form’s palm. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 137]
Then Eren’s colossal form appears and the rumbling continues. Armin decides to engage in combat with Eren. Mikasa rejects Eren’s plea to throw away the scarf Eren gave to her and decides that the only way to save the world is by killing Eren. Eren shows her a life where they could live peacefully for four years, however, this life wouldn’t save Paradis and it wouldn’t prevent Historia’s sacrifice. Mikasa jumps into the mouth of Eren’s colossal titan form and kisses Eren and then beheads him. After seeing her strong resolve, Ymir decides to let go of the powers of the titans and ends the rumbling. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 138]
The Marleyan soldiers appear before the Eldians and question the Edlians about their titan powers. Armin walks up to Director Muller and tells him that if they had the powers of the titans, they would have activated it and retaliated against the Marleyan soldiers. He then introduces himself as Armin Arlert, the man who killed Eren Jaeger, the attack titan. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 139]
Outcome
The Jaegerist decide to take over Paradis and seek war. The allied group become Ambassadors for Marley and head to Paradis for a peace treaty. However, they claim that they wouldn’t be surprised if the Jaegerist blew off their ship. Historia informs them about how the Jaegerist have formed an army and will seek war till Paradis or the rest of the world has been destroyed. [Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 139]
My Opinion
Most people considered the ending of Attack on Titan as a bad way to end the series, however, I believe it was the natural way to do it. After his hometown was destroyed Eren was filled with one motivation in mind and that was to exterminate all titans. However, when he himself got the powers of the titan, his view on titans changed, he later learned that his very own friends were the people who destroyed his hometown and they were the reason that his mother died. His view of the world further changed when he read the books left in the basement by his father.
Eren’s drive for freedom never came from joining the scouts or by killing all titans, his concept of freedom was built by Armin when he showed Eren a book left by his grandparents. His concept of freedom was built around his understanding of the world and he felt like a bird that hadn’t seen anything outside the cage. According to Eren, freedom was something that was stolen from him.
Eren believes that if someone takes his freedom away, he wouldn’t hesitate to take their freedom away from them. However, after meeting the people of the internment zone, he felt that the people were the same as the people from Paradis.
He knew that he couldn’t live with Mikasa for longer than four years and if we went along with this, he would also have to sacrifice Historia and force Historia’s child to eat her own mother to maintain the balance of power. Hence, he could come to one conclusion and it was to destroy a huge chunk of the population to grant Paradis freedom, hence activating the rumbling and giving Paradis time to get technologically advanced and become self-sufficient to face any problem in the future. Eren is neither a hero nor a villain, he is just a victim.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed the entire article about “the rumbling” and its relevance in the story. Do let me know if you enjoyed the ending. What could have Isayama done differently that could have benefitted the story? Let me know in the comment section. Also, if you haven’t caught up with the anime adaptaion yet, we highly suggest you check our Attack on Titan watch order guide!
