Famous “Last Panel” of Attack on Titan — What Went Wrong?

Summary:

• A manga panel with a man holding a child was said to be the last one of Attack on Titan.
• People thought it was Eren holding Historia’s child.
• It turned out to be untrue, and the panel appeared in the last chapter with Grisha holding small Eren.

Back when the Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) manga was still unfinished, there were various theories and predictions about its possible finale. And while many were based on fans’ intuition or common sense, some had evidence behind them.

Years ago, there was a manga panel circulating the Internet that portrayed a man holding a child in his arms. We cannot see the man’s face, only the back of his head, so it’s impossible to say who that man is. It was said to be the final panel of the Attack on Titan manga, and theories began to blossom.

Was that Eren?

It’s obvious that the first idea that came to fans’ minds was that the man was Eren himself. It went pretty well with other theories, because Historia was pregnant, and no one truly believed that the farmer was the father of her child, and Eren and Historia were really close and discussed her having a child. Too much evidence was driving at the fact that the man in the panel was Eren with Historia’s (and his own) child.

We now know that it was not the truth, and Historia didn’t play such a big role in the finale of Attack on Titan. Moreover, her kid was also quite unimportant to the story in the end. Which only further led fans to the idea that Isayama had another ending in mind. Although the author himself refuted this theory and said that the ending was planned straight from the beginning, manga readers are still doubtful.

It was Grisha

But something resembling this panel was indeed in the manga. But it was not the final frame, of course, as we know. It appeared in the last chapter of the manga, chapter 139, and portrayed Grisha holding small Eren in his arms. And it feels like the discussion should be over at this point, but there’s more.

Fans have noticed that this panel was not in the original draft of chapter 139, and was added later. Which makes fans even more confident in their idea that the ending was altered by Isayama. But we know that drafts are called drafts for a reason, and even if this panel was not there, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t intended to be there.