WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2, now streaming on Funimation, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 has officially wrapped, and on a chilling note. Eren Yeager, in his enormous Founding Titan form, has finally made landfall with his legion of Wall Titans. Even the combined military might of the entire world is powerless to stop the coming onslaught. Meanwhile, Eren's friends are on their way to stop him, although they obviously won't make it before a sizeable chunk of the human population beyond Paradis Island is trampled. However, this is all supposed to end, it certainly won't be pretty. What's really bothering fans, though, is that they won't be able to see the stunning conclusion until 2023.
With another year to go before Attack on Titan finally truly concludes, anime-only viewers are left to wonder about a lot of things. One would think that all of the major questions of AOT would have been answered by now. Anything along the lines of "Eren starts the Rumbling" sounds like it would be the ultimate spoiler for the series. Despite that, however, there are still things left unanswered that people want to know about. Before Attack on Titan can conclude for real (i.e., no more "Parts"), it will have to at least give fans the answers they've been craving.
What is the mysterious, spine-like creature?
Attack on Titan Episode 80, "From You, 2,000 Years Ago," finally introduced the source of Titans in the world. Thousands of years ago, a young Ymir stumbled into a pool of water beneath a tree and almost drowns, However, she is intercepted by a creature swimming in the water and transformed into what is now known as the Founding Titan.
In the present day, Eren, the false inheritor of the Founding Titan, has his head shot off and almost dies. However, the same creature that saved Ymir all those millennia ago emerges from Eren's body and attaches itself to his head, thus transforming him into the new Founding Titan.
Nobody is quite sure what to make of this thing. Many have likened it to the hallucigenia, a real-life organism that lived in the Cambrian Period. What it really is and where it came from baffles even some manga readers.
How can the Rumbling be stopped?
Nobody seems certain about what to do to stop the Rumbling. The united armies of the world tried firing at the Wall Titans, but there are far too many of them. Not even the united armies of the world could gather the firepower to stop millions upon millions of colossi.
Eren's friends are on their way to stop him, but there's no telling how they'll do it. Armin wants to believe that they'll be able to talk some sense into Eren to get him to stop. The others are more convinced that they'll be forced to kill him.
Even if Eren's friends decide to stop him with force, there's no telling how Eren himself will respond. With the powers of the Founding Titan, he doesn't even have to fight them directly; he could just brainwash them into not fighting him. Why he hasn't simply done this already remains a mystery.
Where are Eren and Zeke?
Eren's current whereabouts are unknown. That is to say, the location of his real body is unknown. Obviously, it has to be somewhere along the skeleton so massive that not even the word "colossal" can't describe it, but that's part of the problem. For one thing, much of the Founding Titan is a giant skeleton, including the nape of the neck where the Titan Shifters would normally reside. That means Eren has to be somewhere else along this massive body; for all anyone knows, he could have transformed completely into the Titan itself.
Zeke's whereabouts are similarly unknown. The last anyone saw of him was in Episode 80; as Eren was turning into the Founding Titan, Zeke was apparently overtaken by the hallucigenia. That implies that, like Eren, he's located somewhere along the Founding Titan's body. It's even possible that he's become one with the Founding Titan along with Eren.
Who will survive?
This is the question everyone must ask even if they don't like the answer. For all of the beloved characters who have died in AOT already, there are still so many fan-favorites for whom audiences will have to wave a tearful goodbye. It hurts, but it's going to happen.
It's just a question of who will, in fact, kick the bucket. Obviously, the Titan Shifters are fated to die within the next 13 years, but that doesn't mean some of them won't die in this final battle. Reiner, in particular, seems to be looking for just the right place to die.
Besides the Titan Shifters, there are plenty of beloved characters with targets on their heads. Neither Jean nor Connie nor anyone else going up against Eren and his titans is safe, not even Levi. If main characters are meant to die, there's no better place than the series finale.
In what format will the anime conclude?
This doesn't necessarily pertain to the narrative, but it's something a lot of people have been wondering about. Even manga readers have no idea how the anime staff is planning on handling the grand finale of AOT. Apparently, the "Final Season" is being divided into an additional third part.
Fans have a couple of ideas for how the last chapters of AOT will be adapted. The simple answer would be to adapt the remaining chapters into more episodes. However, many fans say that the grand finale will be a feature-length film; these are only rumors, but it remains entirely plausible.
It's important to remember that there are only nine chapters of AOT left to adapt. This seems like too few chapters to make the ideal 12-episode cour, but it might be just right for a film. In any case, everyone's desperate to know how everything will end for the anime.
