Thaw

In Liberio's marketplace, Annie's father collapses under the weight of Eren's worldwide declaration. On Paradis, Gabi guides a failing Reiner in search of Falco. Stripped of his Titan's armor when Eren dissolved all hardening alongside the Walls, Reiner can barely stand; he urges Gabi to flee to the Marleyan airships, but she refuses, arguing that killing Eren is the only way to save their families. Reiner counters that the Founding Titan's control over all Subjects of Ymir makes that impossible, then passes out. Gabi leaves him food and a blanket, shoulders Colt's anti-Titan rifle, and sets off alone.

On a rooftop, Jean, Connie, Mikasa, and Armin guard the unconscious Falco and wrestle with what Eren has done. Jean reasons bleakly that global annihilation does erase the hatred aimed at the island, and that Eren, having refused both Zeke's sterilization plan and Historia's sacrifice, must be acting to protect his friends. The debate breaks off when freshly spawned Pure Titans, made from the wine-drugged soldiers, turn on the Eldian troops. Jean floats feeding Falco to a Titan to restore someone, and Connie claims him for his mother, ignoring Armin's warning that doing so would ignite a new war with the Warriors. Connie slips away with the boy during a Titan attack.

Elsewhere, a Titan corners Kaya as she relives her mother's death, and Gabi drops it with a shot through the mouth before blasting its nape. Kaya briefly mistakes her rescuer for Sasha. When a soldier grows suspicious of Gabi's identity, Kaya lies to protect her, and Niccolo takes credit for the gunshot. Neither girl can fully explain why she shielded the other; Gabi insists she is the real devil for the people she killed seeking praise, and Niccolo answers that a devil lives inside everyone, which is how the world became what it is. At the fort, Keith Shadis saves the trainee Surma and shames the garrison into following him, while Jean organizes the defenders on the top floor and wipes out the concentrated Titans with massed Thunder Spear volleys. Floch returns alive, has Yelena and the Volunteers restrained at gunpoint, and Onyankopon grasps that his homeland is now doomed. Inside the fort, Gabi begs Armin to have Eren restore Connie's mother, mentioning that the Founder stripped the Armored Titan's plating when the Walls fell. Armin freezes at the implication. Underground, Annie's shattered crystal lies in fragments as she wakes on the floor.

Eren's removal of all hardening leaves Reiner without his armor and too weak to act, so Gabi continues the search for Falco alone.

Connie abducts the unconscious Falco, intending to feed him to his Titanized mother despite Armin's objections.

Gabi kills the Titan attacking Kaya, and the two girls cover for each other despite the blood between them.

Keith Shadis rallies the panicking soldiers, and Jean's Thunder Spear tactic annihilates the Pure Titans massed at the fort.

Floch survives the Walls' collapse and has the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers arrested; Armin deduces from Gabi's account that Annie's crystal has dissolved, and she awakens free.

Thaw is the second chapter of volume 31 and the 124th overall, released December 9, 2019 in Japan and a day earlier in English. Part of the War for Paradis arc, its material spans the anime episodes From You, 2,000 Years Ago and Thaw.

One of the chapter's Pure Titans is drawn to resemble Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, shows Isayama is known to have watched; the chapter was in production around the announcement of the latter's fifth season. It follows Island Devils and precedes Sunset.