Attack on TitanLists about the manga and anime series, in which humanity live in walled cities to protect themselves against the enormous, remorseless, human-hungry Titans.
When many anime fans think about anime plot twists, the first show that springs to mind is Attack on Titan. This shonen hit is notorious for being filled with mind-bending plot twists that turn your understanding of the story on its head. Let's look at the biggest plot twists in Attack on Titan, from early revelations like Eren's Titan shifting to everything that's happened in the final season.
There are more plot twists to come in the manga, but this list will only be discussing plot twists that have made it into the anime. That means that if you're an anime-only fan who is up-to-date with the anime, you won't encounter spoilers, but if you're a few episodes or seasons behind, you might want to come back to this list once you've caught up.
At first, Eren seems like an innocent victim of his father's designs. While his father does have some agency, Eren actually manipulated his father into doing things like annihilating the Reiss family to get his hands on the Founding Titan.
As we mentioned elsewhere, the Attack Titan allows its users to view the future memories of those who will inherit it later. Eren was able to exploit this ability in order to manipulate Grisha into doing what was needed to execute Eren's Rumbling plan. While viewers might have anticipated some of the plot twists on this list, it's unlikely that anyone saw this coming.
The way Reiner revealed he was the Armored Titan and Bertholdt was the Colossal Titan was so sudden and shocking that it was almost funny. They weren't discovered, nor were they prompted to say anything - Reiner just got sick of hiding it and told Eren out of the blue.
Considering the fact that these Titans essentially destroyed life as the protagonists know it, this was a major revelation that changed the course of the series.
One of the most brutal moments in the series involves Eren's mother Carla being devoured by a Titan with a creepy smile on its face.
It turns out that that Titan used to be a specific person - Dina Fritz. It's weird enough knowing that the Titan was anybody, but Dina Fritz was Grisha Jaeger's first wife. This means that Dina went to her former husband's current home and ate his current wife. Talk about family drama.
The walls are supposed to protect humanity from being devoured by Titans. But the walls aren't made of traditional materials like concrete or steel - they're made of Titans.
It turns out that long ago, the first king used his coordinate power to have Titans harden their bodies to create the walls. He also created the Church of the Walls in order to both protect the walls and misdirect the public as to their true origin.
One of the Attack Titan's most unexpected abilities is its power to see into the future. It doesn't do this through traditional psychic means, but through looking into the memories of the people who will inherit it in the future.
This ability explains how Grisha learned about the Founding Titan's bloodline restriction - he was able to look into Eren's future memories.
For the past two seasons, Eren's true goal has been unclear. This is both because his point of view was rarely portrayed, and because he outright lied on multiple occasions. Recently, he revealed his true intentions - to destroy all non-Eldian life on Earth using the Titans under his control.
So far, the outcome of this plan has yet to be revealed in the anime, and there may be further twists to come. But right now, Eren clearly intends to commit mass genocide on an unprecedented scale. That's a lot to swallow.
