Old Story

Historia's past unfolds as she once told it to Squad Levi. Raised on a farm by a mother who would not look at her, she learned from books that parents were supposed to show affection, and earned only a violent shove and the words that her mother wished her dead when she tried a hug. After Wall Maria's collapse, the lord of their land, Rod Reiss, appeared to claim her, but men in black coats led by Kenny Ackermann intercepted them. Her mother disowned her on the spot and was cut down anyway; Rod bargained for Historia's life on the condition that she vanish into a quiet existence as Christa Lenz. Holding his daughter in the present, Rod frames it all as protection and tells her the Reiss line is the true royal family, making her the one person capable of saving humanity.

In a prison cell, Sannes discovers that Ralph never betrayed him; Hange staged the whole performance with a script and a knife. Broken, he warns that someone else will simply inherit his bloody role. Hange then pieces together the mechanics of Titan inheritance from Eren's transcription of Ymir's words: a mindless Titan that devours a shifter becomes human and takes that power, meaning the government intends to feed Eren to a Titan of their own choosing.

That night Erwin lays his cards before Pyxis: retaking Wall Maria requires toppling the government first, bloodlessly, by installing Historia as the rightful queen and unmasking the sitting king as a fraud. Pyxis backs him. At dawn the First Interior Squad comes for Erwin over the murder of Dimo Reeves, and he hands command of the Scouts to Hange before surrendering. As he is led away, he recalls his father, a teacher whose theory that the First King rewrote humanity's memories earned him a staged accidental death, and concludes that greed, not principle, keeps the regime killing. In Stohess, wanted posters for the Scouts paper the streets while Squad Levi shelters at a woodland camp, and Sasha suddenly hears footsteps approaching.

Historia's full backstory is revealed: her mother's murder by Kenny Ackermann, Rod Reiss sparing her, and the fabricated identity of Christa Lenz.

Rod tells Historia she carries royal blood and that the Reiss family, not the throne in Mitras, is the genuine royal line.

Hange deduces the inheritance rule of the Power of the Titans and realizes the government plans to have Eren eaten.

Erwin wins Pyxis over to a bloodless coup built around crowning Historia, then names Hange his successor as the First Interior Squad arrests him and the Scout Regiment.

Erwin's childhood is disclosed: his father died for theorizing that the First King altered humanity's memories, the question that has driven Erwin ever since.

This is the 3rd episode of season 3 and the 40th Attack on Titan installment overall, produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. It premiered in Japan on August 6, 2018 and in the United States on September 8, 2018.

The episode compresses six Royal Government arc chapters: Krista Lenz, Location of the Counterattack, Pain, Actors, Kenny the Ripper, and Gunshots. Four directors shared duties, Tomoko Hirakata, Naohiro Osugi, Yuko Yamamoto, and Takaaki Chiba, with Hiroshi Seko writing. Red Swan opens and Requiem der Morgenröte closes. The informational segment explains Intelligent Titans: a mindless Pure Titan gains consciousness and the consumed power by eating a shifter, the rule underpinning the plot against Eren. Pain precedes the episode and Trust follows it.