The Door of Hope

Having outrun the Titan that ate Marcel, Reiner catches his breath against a tree and spirals into panic, fearing Annie and Bertolt were devoured too. Annie announces her presence with a kick. Her plan is blunt: hunt down whoever just inherited the Jaw Titan, return to the Marleyan ships, and report the operation a failure. Reiner protests that going back means surrendering his Armored Titan to a replacement, that no Titan among them could run down the new Jaw, and that only some measure of success will shield the three of them from punishment. Annie snaps and batters him, confessing between blows that Marley and Eldia mean nothing to her and that home is all she wants. Reiner finally tackles her to the ground and declares he will become Marcel for them, promising they will all return together.

The march to the Walls follows the original plan minus one carrier: Annie's Female Titan screams to gather a following of Titans while she hauls the boys, but without Marcel to trade off with, her stamina collapses within sight of Wall Maria and Reiner's Armor takes over. Dropped at the gate, Bertolt doubts his nerve for a moment, then kicks the outer gate open as the Colossus Titan. A stray Titan wanders toward the vulnerable Bertolt and inexplicably passes him by; Reiner collects his partners, deposits them atop the Wall, and heads for the inner gate. Moving through Shiganshina, he turns over Marcel's sacrifice and his own reasons for becoming a Warrior, and decides he cannot let the mission end while he still understands nothing.

Annie comes to at a camp for the displaced within Wall Rose, Reiner and Bertolt beside her, the first stage of their mission complete. Among the displaced they meet a man whose isolated village never received warning of the breach, who fled leaving three children behind and was later found hanged. Working the fields, the trio dissect the revelation that the reigning Fritz line is a decoy, probably Eldians outside the Founder's control. Bertolt floats tracking down the true king; Annie counters that the capital is closed to them, with no servant positions and her "filthy blood" barring marriage into the nobility. Reiner concludes that enlistment and the Military Police are the only road to the royal family. Annie would rather demolish the remaining Walls outright, but Reiner warns that cornering the Founding Titan could mean the Colossus Titans inside the Walls being turned loose on the world. In time the three enter the 104th Training Corps, where Reiner answers his instructor's question about his enlistment with a vow to save humanity.

Reiner talks Annie and Bertolt out of abandoning the operation after Marcel's death, vowing to take Marcel's place.

Annie's Female Titan gathers a horde and the trio reach Wall Maria, where Bertolt's Colossus Titan breaches the outer gate and Reiner's Armored Titan destroys the inner one.

Dina Fritz's Titan ignores Bertolt, an anomaly no one yet understands.

Living as refugees, the Warriors deduce that the visible Fritz royals are stand-ins and settle on infiltrating the Military Police.

Reiner rejects Annie's proposal to destroy the Walls, citing the threat of the Wall Titans being unleashed, and the three join the 104th Training Corps.

The Door of Hope is the second chapter of volume 24 and the 96th overall, by Hajime Isayama. It appeared in Japan on August 9, 2017, a day after the English simulpub, within the Marley arc, between Liar and From One Hand to Another. Its events reach the anime through an identically titled episode.

Several of the Titans drawn answering the Female Titan's scream visibly resemble cast members of the Game of Thrones television series, among them lookalikes of Tyrion Lannister, Margaery Tyrell, Grey Worm, Missandei, Petyr Baelish, Varys, and Arya Stark.