The ending of Attack on Titan explained
Mikasa kills Eren. In his Titan form he holds off the Alliance — he uses his own friends as instruments of his plan. In the end Mikasa cuts off his head in his human form, holding him one last time. She buries that head beneath the tree where he slept as a child.
The Rumbling stops. Three quarters of the world’s population is dead. The surviving Titans lose their powers and become people again — including every holder of the Nine Titans. Armin addresses the world on behalf of Paradis and tries to make peace.
After the final time skip the epilogue shows the world carrying on. There is peace — but only for a while. New nations are arming themselves. The tree on Eren’s grave grows into an enormous tree resembling the fig tree of Ymir Fritz, suggesting that the cycle of Titans may one day return.
Mikasa lives a long life, marries (the series never says to whom) and eventually dies of old age at Eren’s grave, still wearing the scarf. Jean and Connie appear to get on with their lives. Historia rules Paradis.
The tree at the end is no accident. At the very start of the series Eren, still a child, falls asleep beside a tree — already dreaming of the future he has seen through the Founding Titan. The circle is closed: beginning and end are the same moment.
Isayama’s suggestion is that the cycle of violence, hatred and Titans never truly ends — it only sleeps. This is not a nihilistic statement but a call for vigilance: peace has to be actively maintained.
The anime ending contains extra scenes that are not in the manga. Isayama personally added new epilogue material, including a clarification of Eren’s intentions through flashbacks that stayed ambiguous on the page.
The most important addition: Eren tells Armin outright that he loves them and that he wants them remembered as heroes rather than as victims. That gives the ending an emotional foundation the manga left far more implicit.
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