THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 1

A dreamlike prologue shows a young Eren waking beneath a tree, weeping without knowing why, as a short-haired Mikasa tells him it is time to head home. In present-day Marley, the refugee boy Ramzi hides a stash of stolen coins meant to buy his camp a better life, moments before the earth begins to shake. A flashback reveals that Eren, on his first visit to Liberio, already knew he would one day flatten the city; he rescued Ramzi from a beating anyway, then wept and apologized to the confused boy, confessing that the world across the sea had disappointed him and that he wanted to wipe it all away. The Wall Titans arrive, and Ramzi and his cousin Halil die in the crush along with most of Liberio.

Aboard the ship to Odiha, Annie thanks Armin for the years he spent talking to her crystal, and both stumble through feelings neither can name while millions die. At the abandoned port, the crew races to ready the flying boat. Yelena identifies Fort Salta, a mountain airbase, as Eren's likely target. Annie chooses to leave with Kiyomi and the children rather than fight; Mikasa tells her she does not intend to kill Eren, only to bring him back. Floch, dying from wounds and clinging to the ship since Paradis, shoots a hole in the fuel tank before Mikasa finishes him, costing the crew a fatal hour of repairs.

With the Rumbling closing in, Hange claims the rearguard as their own responsibility, names Armin the Scout Regiment's fifteenth commander, and receives from Levi the only dedication of the heart he has ever offered anyone. Hange topples several Wall Titans alone before the heat takes them. In the air, the group is drawn into the Paths, where a child Eren tells them no compromise is possible and grants them the freedom to stop him by killing him. Near Fort Salta, Marley's airship fleet is wiped out by a replica Beast Titan rising from the Founder's back, and the Scouts and Warriors dive from the flying boat onto Eren's Titan.

Liberio is annihilated by the Rumbling, killing Ramzi, Halil, and Grisha's imprisoned parents. Floch Forster dies delaying the flying boat's departure. Hange Zoë passes leadership of the Scouts to Armin and is killed holding the Wall Titans back, joining Erwin and the fallen Scouts in a vision of the afterlife. Falco realizes Zeke's spinal fluid may let his Jaw Titan fly.

Eren gathers his friends in the Paths and rejects all negotiation, framing the coming clash as a fight between unbendable convictions. Aboard the flying boat, Levi commits to killing Zeke to sever the royal-blood link behind the Rumbling, and Armin holds his Colossal Titan in reserve. At Fort Salta the refugee train arrives to find the airships gone; the fleet's bombing run fails, and Karina Braun confronts how she raised Reiner. The special ends with the assault team grappling onto the Founding Titan's back.

MAPPA produced this hour-long television special, the first half of the series finale, directed by Yuichiro Hayashi, Ryota Aikei, and Kiou Igarashi from Hiroshi Seko's script. It adapts the chapters To You, 2,000 Years From Now, The Rumbling, The Wings of Freedom, Sinners, and In the Depths of Despair, airing in Japan on March 4, 2023 and on Toonami, as The Final Chapters Part 1, on September 10, 2023. UNDER THE TREE serves as the ending theme.

Japanese streaming services later carried an episodic recut dividing the special into episodes 88 through 90: The Rumbling, The Wings of Freedom, and In the Depths of Despair. A pre-release streaming split into three untitled parts existed earlier but lacked theme songs and standard segments. One animation error puts a Scout Regiment logo on Ian Dietrich, a Garrison officer.