Artur Braus/Synopsis

==History==
Artur Braus was born in the village of Dauper, a remote and scarcely populated village of hunters located in a mountain forest in the southern area of Wall Rose. There he learned his clan's traditions and became a hunter. At some point in his life he met and married Lisa Braus, and the two would have a daughter, Sasha in 834. Artur taught his daughter to follow the clan's traditions, use the bow and made her into an expert hunter, usually hunting together with her. 
After the Fall of Wall Maria in 845, many of the refugees evacuating the lands of Wall Maria end up flooding into Wall Rose, which results in a significant drop in game as well as more land being used to farm. There was always an issue with food shortage within the Walls, due to the limited amount of territory to feed the population, which always caused the forced isolation of the poorest people of Wall Sina within the Underground city beneath the Interior. And now with the loss of Wall Maria, there are extra mouths in Wall Rose's lands that need to be fed with animals and food from planted grain, the former only through hunting and fishing, as meat from raised livestock became a privilege only the wealthy citizens, nobles, and military officers can afford or receive. Also, as the Fall resulted with the loss of more than one third of the human territory, the people of Wall Rose suffer from the food shortage due to the significant loss of land.
Despite the Royal Government's efforts to prevent a major crisis, - making the refugees work to plant more grain on Wall Rose's lands to boost up food rations a few days after the Fall of Wall Maria - nothing stops the aggravation of the food shortage and the great famine and poverty that follow, which all result with growing conflict and resentment between the humans of Wall Rose and the humans of Wall Maria. To prevent a civil war, a year later in 846 the Royal Government enlists masses of refugees into the Survey Corps and launches the Operation to Reclaim Wall Maria. This operation is in truth only the government's final solution to alleviate the food shortage brought by the significant loss of territory, and it is silently supported by the military and all the people of Wall Rose and Wall Sina, who do not protest for the refugees' lives and equally bare the sin of knowing they are just sacrificing the refugees by kicking them out of the human territory and letting the Titans have them, all to avoid war.
As a result, a large portion of the remaining population of Wall Maria is killed and devoured by the Titans, less than 250,000 people, resulting with the death of 20% of the overall population within the Walls and leaving only less than 200 survivors returning from the expedition. The overall remaining refugees are so outnumbered by the population of Wall Rose that civil war never erupts, and the food shortage is slightly eased enough to avoid chaos, although the remaining refugees keep providing food for themselves by hunting, fishing and working on lands that belong to Wall Rose's citizens, including that of Artur's hunting village of Dauper.
During early 847, Artur is seen at Dauper, outside his house deep into the forest, attempting to stop Sasha from eating a piece of meat stored for the winter. After reluctantly allowing her to eat it, he explains to his then-isolative daughter the reason for preserving food and the influx of people coming in after Wall Maria was destroyed and overrun with Titans. In particular, many refugees recently came up to the forest mountain territory of Dauper - which is quite far away from civilization - and begun hunting for food, resulting in less game for the village's citizens than usual. Sasha and most of Dauper's inhabitants lament this issue and are angry at the refugees for having invaded their territory. When Sasha shows little sympathy for the refugees and complains that what happened to them is their own problem and fault for losing their homes, Artur becomes slightly angered and scolds his daughter for her words.
Artur openly considers accepting the Royal Government's offer to pay for the entire territory of Dauper, allowing them to clear the forest for more farmland, while hunters will learn to manage horses and breed them under the government's pay of a good sum. Sasha vehemently objects, asking why they should turn their backs on their clan's traditions and help the people who always looked down on them as savages and make fun of their accent. She feels it is unfair for the clan to suddenly change the way they live just because of newcomers who came out of nowhere and never even held villages like hers in high regard. Artur does not argue against Sasha's point and admits that most of the village feels the same way, and he is unhappy about it as well. However, in spite that he cherishes his way of life and tradition as much as Sasha does, he replies that they're all humans and they're all part of the same world, and while it's fine to act and live your own way, there are times to think about the greater good, as humanity should be all united together and treat each other like a family, in his opinion. When Sasha refuses to change from the clan's traditions, Artur accepts her decision, but warns her she must be willing to die by the clan's traditions as well, since she would receive no help and should expect no help from the people she turned her back on. He continues by saying that he'd rather abandon tradition than living on his own, insisting that it's time for the clan to move on.
However, Sasha is still angered by her father and enlists in the military to retaliate in 847, wanting to prove Artur wrong. According to Sasha, her fellow villagers told her not to come back until she becomes "normal", possibly due to her strange and insecure behavior. Artur considers himself the reason why Sasha left the village and joined the Training Corps; yet he is content with it, thinking he finally sent his daughter outside the forest for the first time, to learn how big and different the world truly is, instead of keeping her close minded beliefs. Even if he always loved Sasha, Artur thinks that she is a coward, ignorant and too selfish and wishes for her to change and learn her lesson and how the real world works outside her "bubble", and hopes she will join either the Military Police or the Garrison to serve for the good of humanity.
When Connie Springer hears that Sasha comes from Dauper during the first day of the 104th Training Corps, he mentions himself being familiar with the village's location. He is surprised places like Dauper still existed until now, as almost all the remote mountain and forest villages within Wall Rose no longer exist after the Fall, mainly because the people moved to bigger settlements closer to the Walls and civilization, due to the terror of the Colossal Titan showing up again.
Artur accepts the Royal Government's offer and gives up being a hunter entirely, he and his wife Lisa becoming farmers who breed horses for the military. The government pays the people of Dauper with money in exchange of the sacrifice of the forest, and has new buildings built on the region. Over the next three years, Artur assists in the gradual changes made in his region by the Royal Government and helps make the territory modern. He and Lisa end up living in a bigger more modern house and now have roads with human activity connected to the area, no longer isolated. It is unknown how Dauper looks by the years 850-854, or if it even still exists at all. However, in the direction to reach Dauper a new bigger village has been built whilst Sasha has been training for three years, never returning home to visit unlike other Cadets.
In the second OVA episode of the anime adaptation, Artur's words to Sasha are mentioned by his daughter, when Reiner Braun upsets her and makes her cry for refusing to collaborate with her on a hunting trip. In a rather random fashion, Sasha tells Reiner that the world is connected, as her father taught her, much to Reiner's confusion. At this point - which is around late 849, not too many months away from the graduation of the 104th the following year - Sasha changed her old mentality, embraced a selfless nature, and inherited her father's beliefs to help other people and that all human beings in the world should act united and connected, instead of letting their different backgrounds, upringings, and cultures separate them. She also formed bonds and friendships with her fellow Cadets, just as her father hoped.
Possibly due to her father's teachings, as well as an optimistic and idealistic speech from Eren Yeager to bring change and recover lands for humanity, Sasha gives up her ambition to join the Military Police in order to escape the food shortage problem, and instead fearfully enlists in the Survey Corps after fighting and witnessing the terror of the Battle of Trost District during early 850.
Always in 850, one month after the return of the Colossal Titan and the Battle of Trost District, as well as several days after the disastrous 57th expedition of the Survey Corps against the Female Titan, Wall Rose comes under attack from the Titans once again. This time the third invasion of the Walls originates from an unknown breach location in the south of Wall Rose, somewhere between Trost and Krolva Districts. As the military rides everywhere to alert the entire population of Rose, some Titans already scatter toward human settlements before the civilians can be evacuated, including the recently built village that is found on the road to Dauper's former land. On their own, the panicking people of the region flee and evacuate, whilst Artur and many of the other survivor hunters and former hunters assist in helping all the inhabitants of the area by distributing them horses to flee on, to ride to Wall Sina for safety.
On duty to alert the population of southern Wall Rose without her uniform and equipment, Sasha rides back to her homeland three years since she left, only to find out that the Titans already reached it. Deciding to check for any sign of Titan invasion in the newer and bigger village, she finds out that two inhabitants remained, one of them dying, and rescues a little girl and helps her to escape one very small Pure Titan. Artur and his mounted group, who are still riding around the land to rescue anyone, find the running little girl, whose name is Kaya, who informs them that another girl is still behind in her deserted village. As Artur's group ride back to the village, they come across Sasha, much to Artur's surprise. As he finally encounters his daughter after three years, Artur is surprised to learn that Sasha put her life on the line and just saved Kaya's life. After giving her a horse, he calls her a splendid person, expressing great pride in the ways she changed.
Artur and his group of horsemen, as well as Sasha and Kaya, reach Ehrmich District on Wall Sina's southern edge, where masses of refugees from Wall Rose keep flooding through the gates for safety. Whilst Artur and the others join the refugees, Sasha goes to report to Commander Erwin Smith and put her military uniform and equipment. Afterwards, Artur and his wife Lisa spend a week living in the large Underground city beneath the Interior at the capital Mitras, along with Kaya and all the rest of the inhabitants of Wall Rose, all forced to stay down there by the Royal Government and the Military Police. But there is a lot of malcontent among the refugees and the food stockpiles for emergency are almost all gone after only a week, resulting with many of the refugees being dissatisfied with the little amounts of food, as well as episodes of defiance and stress from people wanting to leave the Underground. At the end of the week, tensions between the civilians have grown high, although they all remain under the watch of the MP authorities. The situation causes the Royal Government to have all refugees allowed to be sent back to Wall Rose at once before a full riot occurs. However, after the week some of the refugees end up clashing with the MP as they are being sent back to Wall Rose. Fortunately, the MPs manage to suppress the whole incident without any casualties from either side. 
As the Survey Corps and Garrison cleared Rose's lands of the Titans and could not find any breach on the Walls, authorities declared that Wall Rose is safe again, thus Artur, Lisa and all the other refugees are able to return home one week after the third Titan invasion. Upon returning back to Kaya's village, her mother is found dead in her house, having perished from her wounds received from the small Titan who attacked the place. Artur and Lisa decide to adopt Kaya and let her live with them. Despite the lands of southern Wall Rose being safe, the majority of the population desert all the villages that are too far away from the major towns and cities, due to the terror of another Titan attack. Kaya's village is one of those places, which becomes completely deserted and left to the vegetation, and Dauper might have met the same fate.
The mass panic of the population of the Walls grows greater upon finding out that the southern village of Ragako has been completely destroyed during the last attack, yet not a single sign of death has been found, but at the same time no citizens from Ragako other than Connie Springer can be found anywhere, instead the entire village's population has ominously vanished from existence. To make things worse, fear, resentment and mistrust for the military and the now weaker Survey Corps grow worse upon finding out that two Intelligent Titans - humanity's ally Eren Yeager and the Female Titan - also destroyed Stohess District while battling against each other, despite the city being located at the eastern edge of Wall Sina. Everyone speculates about the Titans being of human origins, although the government refuses to officially confirm this. All the wealthy citizens, except for the Reeves merchant family, are leaving southern Wall Rose and small business in Trost District is collapsing as more and more people leave and visitors are no longer coming, resulting with poverty. Also, the Military Police abandons the south, whilst the Garrison becomes more focused with defending the Walls, leaving only the Interior Military Police from Mitras suddenly coming to Trost and unexpectedly taking control of the city, officially to maintain law and order and protect the panicking population.
As Artur's business is mainly about providing horses for the military, the Braus family presumably does not suffer much from the crisis in southern Wall Rose, which remains until the Royal Government is suddenly overthrown after the internal conflicts of ideologies between the Interior Police and the Survey Corps escalate in a coup d'état, in which military rule under Queen Historia Reiss is established within the Walls, changing the system and administration after a century. After discovering the truth behind the previous government's tyranny and even technology that was kept hidden by them, civilization within the Walls starts to become more hopeful and optimistic, and the masses support the Survey Corps' mission to recapture Wall Maria and recover the lost territory. Four months since the Battle of Trost District, the Survey Corps succeed their mission to close the two wall breaches at Shiganshina District, although Wall Maria is still overrun with Titans inside its lands, but the biggest good news for the people is that the Colossal Titan has been killed.
On the same year, the new government of the Walls releases the shocking truth of the world to the public, revealing that all the Titans are humans, that the Titans responsible for the third invasion and the massacre of Ragako were the citizens of Ragako themselves, that the Walls are entirely made of hardened humongous Titans inside them, that a gigantic body of salt water called "ocean" exists in the world and covers most of the globe's surface, that the world outside the Walls is filled with numerous nations and different races who have more advanced technology, that civilization within the Walls are the remnants of the fallen Eldian Empire which relocated on a small island called Paradis Island, and that the multiple Titan attacks and massacres from the south that occured are all part of a military campaign of the neighboring continental mainland nation of Marley, Eldia's most bitter enemy. Artur is shocked to learn how complex and dangerous the real world truly is and realizes his daughter ended up getting herself in a bigger war and hateful conflict, and that what was the much dreamed freedom outside the Walls' cramped society was in truth just more incoming threat and death.
At some point between the time-skip, Artur and Lisa decide to open their home to orphans whose parents have been killed by Titans, accepting them as their family. All the orphans of the Walls are supported by the policies of Queen Historia, who gathered the majority of them in her orphanage, along with the orphans of the Underground. In 851, the entirety of Wall Maria and Paradis Island as a whole is cleansed of the Pure Titans that had been occupying the island for a century. On the same year, Paradis starts to be threatened by Marley's survey ships, but the invasions are repelled by traitor Marleyan soldiers who call themselves Anti-Marleyan Volunteers, which results with roughly over 4,000 Marleyan POWs being brought to live within the Walls. The arrival of people from outside gives definitive confirmation to the Eldian populace that the public disclosures received from the new government a year ago were real and not propaganda.
Four years since the Battle of Shiganshina District, Sasha loses her life in a battle against Marley, the neighboring imperialistic nation and continental mainland that is responsible for unleashing the Titans upon Paradis Island, having caused all the recent Titan attacks and battles and the recent problems of the Walls' inhabitants. In 853, Sasha was among the Survey Corps soldiers that went to infiltrate Marley for at least six months in the attempt to make peace, until in 854 war has been recently declared on Paradis Island by the Marleyan government, also asking all the world's major nations to join their cause, and a raid in the city of Liberio took place, in which Sasha ended up getting shot to death by a child soldier during retreat.
Right after Sasha's funeral, Artur goes with Lisa and Kaya to visit her grave, where he also meets Mikasa Ackerman, Connie Springer and Jean Kirstein. He also encounters a Marleyan prisoner of war, Niccolo, who introduces himself to the Braus family. He tells Artur that Sasha ate his meals the most, and after the two get acquainted with one another, Niccolo invites them to his restaurant and offers to cook for them one day.
Days after visiting Sasha's grave, Artur is seen having breakfast with his family when he notices Kaya arriving with two other runaway children named Ben and Mia, whom she found lost in the woods. The two country kids are in reality two Marleyan POW soldiers, Falco Grice and Gabi Braun, who escaped captivity after killing their guard and now pretend to be siblings. Ben claims that he and his little sister Mia ran away from their home and begs the family to let the two of them stay for a few days. After hearing their troubles, Artur welcomes them into their home and insists they stay however long they need to. When Lisa attempts to pat Mia on the head, the latter spurns her by violently swatting the hand away, much to Ben's chagrin. Artur is not upset though, understanding the difficulty they must've endured, and Lisa assumes Mia has been traumatized by something, possibly coming from an abusive home, and elects to give her space (in real life Gabi's reaction is seen as typical with majority of victims who suffered abuses). However, Mia's scared and hostile behavior received the attention of the couple and all the orphan children, who keep staring at her with worried expressions, watching her struggling to eat the food and acting like she is in danger.
Ben and Mia spend the rest of the month living at Braus stables, working around the farm with Kaya and the other three orphans. The family takes notice that the two siblings work incredibly harder than all the others, are more physically fit and have a lot more stamina, although they do not learn anything about the two's upringing and how they are so strong and efficient. Gabi actually hates Artur and his entire family for being part of a "filthy race", but eventually grows tamer and more civilized with them, enough for Kaya to end up seeing her as her friend. Presumably during this time spent at the farm, Gabi learns how to ride a horse from the Braus family, as later she is seen having no trouble riding one, despite her previously stating that she and Falco were never trained how to ride in Marley. 
A month since the Raid on Liberio and Sasha's death, Artur goes with his whole family to eat at Niccolo and Griez's restaurant, a place often frequented by the higher ups of the Eldian military. Artur and Lisa enjoy Niccolo's food and are moved to tears by his Marleyan cuisine. Later, Ben and Mia leave, claiming that the former has a stomach ache (in truth they go to fellow Marleyan Niccolo for help and to inform him of the possible imminent counterattack on Paradis by the militaries of the outside world). Artur and his family continue eating, but are interrupted when an enraged Niccolo suddenly emerges from the wine cellar, holding an unconscious Ben (knocked out cold after being bashed in the head with a wine bottle by Niccolo) while tossing a bloodied Mia to the floor. Bewildered by this turn of event, Artur demands Niccolo an explanation for his behavior, and Niccolo reveals to Artur and Lisa that Mia is the one who claimed Sasha's life, and that even though she is just a child she is in truth a fully trained Marleyan soldier and a hardened killer. Niccolo offers the knife to Artur to kill Mia, saying that it is not common to come upon a chance to avenge the death of a daughter. Niccolo then declares that he'll do it himself if Artur doesn't, and assumes Artur surely wouldn't mind.
At that moment, Armin Arlert brings the veteran primary squad of the Survey Corps led by Commander Hange Zoë and the Anti-Marleyan Volunteer Onyankopon, who were waiting in another room and now burst into the scene and shockingly recognize Gabi/Mia and Falco/Ben, mentioning they knew the two kids were on the run. They meekly attempt to stop things from going out of control, but instead a tense standoff takes place. Still holding Falco hostage, Niccolo orders them to stay put and let him avenge Sasha. Artur listens as Gabi and Niccolo exchange tirades about the deaths of the people they loved whilst Niccolo holds a knife to Falco's neck. As the two captives argue about which one between Gabi and Sasha is more guilty, Gabi pointing out that Sasha killed two friends of her, Niccolo briefly hesitates (manga version) but then refuses to give up on his quest for revenge. Panicking for Falco's life and shocked by Niccolo's concern for an Eldian, Gabi reminds him that he is a Marleyan soldier and warns him that Sasha the "she-devil" likely did something to his brain with some bewitching powers of brainwashing, so she encourages him to snap out of it. The statement makes Artur and Lisa look at her with saddened expressions of pity.
Just as the cycle of hatred between the two shows no sign of abating, Artur takes the knife from Niccolo, much to Hange's horror as she begs him to stop. But instead of killing Gabi with it, Artur begins explaining how he was responsible for sending Sasha away from their village and the life of a hunter in a forest, and making her get into another larger forest (namely, the world outside the Walls) where in reality people still continued to kill one another over different ideals and grudges. In the end, Sasha ended up invading other lands (Marley), killed people, until another enemy, Gabi, killed her in retaliation. Artur then concluded that because she wandered in 'the forest' for too long, Sasha lost her life. Concluding that in the end the world people live in turned out to be overall one larger forest, Artur chooses to spare and forgive Gabi to allow the children to escape 'the forest', and putting the pain and hatred behind as their responsibility as adults. Gabi is visibly weirded out by Artur's behavior and words and still shocked that an island "devil" had to protect her from a Marleyan, when it should be the other way around in her expectations. 
After putting the knife down, Lisa orders Niccolo to let Ben go, then she, Artur and Hange tend to his injuries, whilst Niccolo is restrained by Connie and Jean and Mikasa checks on Gabi. Artur then approaches Gabi to ask her if she's alright. Shocked and confused by his words, Gabi asks if he really doesn't hate her. As Artur is about to check on Gabi as well, suddenly, Kaya takes Niccolo's knife and rushes to kill Gabi, though is narrowly stopped by Mikasa. Artur and Lisa both help restrain the grieving Kaya who hysterically curses at Gabi for killing Sasha and for being a false friend to her, and the two also deeply weep as they hold the wailing Kaya in their arms at the revelation of cruel truth. Whilst Armin and Mikasa take Gabi to the other private room for the military, Niccolo informs Hange to rinse Falco's mouth, as some of the Marleyan wine got inside it, although Niccolo ominously states it is probably "too late". 
Artur is present with his whole family when Niccolo reveals that the wine possibly ingested by Ben is probably laced with Zeke Yeager's spinal fluid, explaining how it has been distributed amongst the Eldian military by the Marleyan captives on Yelena's orders and how the Marleyan military used it in past wars to carry out massacres and conquests in enemy nations. Niccolo somberly looks at Artur and tries to apologize, admitting that he's incapable of being a noble forgiver like him yet but still hoping he could try and atone, ashamed by his actions and wondering how he could have tried to kill a child. Artur expresses concern for Ben, since he likely ingested the wine.
After Niccolo was subdued by Survey Corps soldiers and with her life ironically saved by those she considered to be completely evil people, Gabi starts to rethink her prejudice towards Paradis-Eldians, although she keeps reminding herself that they are just devils, regardless what she may see, especially when Eren Yeager and his followers, the Yeagerists, burst into the restaurant, resulting with her being detained once more. 
As the Survey Corps and Onyankopon undress Ben and give him a full bath, Artur, his family and Niccolo are suddenly joined and held at gunpoint by the Yeagerists, under the command of Floch Forster. The Yeagerists gather the Braus family with Hange, Connie, Jean and Onyankopon, whilst Eren sits with Mikasa, Armin and Gabi in the other room. Floch demands Hange to lead him to Zeke's secret location and informs her that Eren has rejected Commander Dot Pixis' offer to negotiate for an alliance between the military and the Yeagerists, revealing that the latters know about Pixis' scheme to have Eren fed to another Titan. Niccolo is angered upon finding out his friend Griez snitched on the Survey Corps' location by contacting the Yeagerists and inform them that they came to the restaurant. Griez, being also a Marleyan POW, reprimands Niccolo for becoming too close with the Eldians and helps the Yeagerists arrest the whole group.
Floch informs the Braus family that he cannot let them go home for the time being, and therefore they are being detained as well, along with Niccolo and Onyankopon. When Hange tries to warn Floch and his group about the threat posed by Zeke's spinal fluid being distributed throughout the Walls' military, Griez dismisses the threat as a mere theory dreamed up by Niccolo. After Floch also acts dismissive and then silently reveals to have already known about Zeke and Yelena's wine ploy, Artur and the rest of the detained group are escorted to carriages outside, whilst the Yeagerists also detain and carry the unconscious Falco to join the other captives, and Gabi, Armin and Mikasa join last, being escorted for last on Eren's orders. The captives are being taken to Wall Maria.
After learning that a large portion of themselves ingested Zeke's wine tainted with his spinal fluid, Pixis and the rest of the military government lose control over Paradis' Walls, which falls under the will and demands of the Yeager brothers Zeke and Eren. The Yeagerists assume control of the Eldian military and the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers are all released from their house arrest, which was caused by Zeke and Eren's actions in Liberio a month ago. While the Yeagerists already gained the support of the majority of the population and military rule, the Volunteers take control of the Eldian government, under Yelena's leadership on Zeke and Eren's behalf, although the population and military within the Walls officially remain divided and confused amidst the chaos. While waiting for Floch to deal with Levi Ackerman and bring back Zeke from somewhere south of Wall Maria, Eren and Yelena lead their forces to Shiganshina District, getting ready to start a small-scale Rumbling against the Global Alliance's military forces, which are assembling at Marley.
With these events taking place, the Brauses are imprisoned with Niccolo, Armin, Mikasa, Jean and Connie together in Shiganshina's military headquarters. On Yelena's orders, Pixis summoned all the major MP and Garrison soldiers of the Eldian military and all the ones who injested the spinal fluid wine to Shiganshina, where they are all detained by the Yeagerists, along with Instructor Keith Shadis and Falco, and locked inside cells. Gabi has been taken aside with Eren to be locked in a separate room that is not a cell, as Eren needs her for some cooperation. All the Yeagerists and all the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers also gathered at the city, waiting for Zeke and Eren to meet. Due to being a Volunteer and Zeke's supporter, Onyankopon is released by the Yeagerists and treated as an ally on Yelena's orders.
Inside their prison cell, Artur makes tea with Niccolo to pass the time and serve it to the other captives. The group is interrupted by the Volunteers, specifically Yelena, Onyankopon, and the newly joined Griez. The Survey Corps officers feel betrayed upon seeing Onyankopon still choosing to support Zeke and Eren, despite being the Volunteer who grew closest to the Survey Corps and Hange, whilst Niccolo is angered and hurt by Griez's betrayal. The group and Niccolo are upset about Yelena ruling over Paradis now and accuse the Volunteers of having manipulated the Eldians these past three years only to finally rule over the island and use the Yeagerists and the military to take revenge on Marley with the Rumbling, insinuating this was the true endgoal all along.
Artur and his family hear Griez calling Niccolo the real traitor, to their country Marley, angrily reprimanding him for having fallen in love with Sasha, whom Griez still views as nothing but a dead devil. Griez goes on to recall with disgust how Niccolo talked about Sasha every night and insults her legacy by calling her a stinking bitch, a whore and a filthy island devil, much to Artur and Connie's visible anger, whilst Niccolo becomes furious and violent upon hearing his own former friend coldly insulting Sasha. Before Griez can say anything else, he is immediately shot in the head by Yelena for being too rude, much to the surprise, shock and horror of all the people present, including Niccolo. Kaya and the other three orphan children scream as Artur and Lisa calm them down, as they are all afraid of Yelena, who apologizes on Griez's behalf for the rudeness.
Yelena reveals to the Survey Corps, the Braus family, Niccolo, and Onyankopon her and Zeke's true goal, which is to "save" Eldia and Marley, as well as the rest of the world, from the cycle of hatred with the "euthanization" of Eldia, which consists in making all the Subjects of Ymir in the world unable to bear children by using the power of the Founding Titan within Eren to modify the anatomy of their bodies. Zeke's plan visibly horrifies the people present, including Onyankopon, although it is a solution to the Titan problem in the world, yet a tragic and sad conclusion for the Eldians. Artur listens as Yelena goes on to explain Zeke's plan to use the Rumbling as a deterrent against the world, after showing its might by crushing the Global Alliance's naval power and forcing Marley and all the other allied nations to simply wait for the Subjects of Ymir to die by natural causes and "peaceful" non-violent extinction the next century. According to Zeke and Yelena's arrangements, the Founding and Beast Titans will be respectively passed to another Eldian soldier and the heir successor of the pregnant Queen Historia. As she is about to tell more to Armin, Yelena is interrupted by her Yeagerist subordinates, who inform her that a Marleyan soldier invaded them, just killed a man, and is now currently detained by Eren. 
Unbeknownst to Artur and to his group, Marley already partially recovered from its heavy defeat in the Raid on Liberio that took place a month ago, and launched a retaliatory strike upon Paradis Island sooner than Zeke, Eren and the Eldian government had anticipated, without waiting for the rest of the Global Alliance to fully assemble. Attacking with a small force of about 500 paratrooper soldiers, other Air Force soldiers and the Titan Warriors aboard five airships, Marley's main objective of the mission is to devour Eren and reclaim the Founder to end the threat of the Rumbling, then fully retreat and return with the rest of the Global Alliance's military forces to fully destroy Paradis months later. Always without Artur and anyone else's knowledge, the sole reason why this surprise attack is taking place is actually Gabi's decision to board the enemy airship in Liberio to kill the Survey Corps which led to her capture, as Reiner Braun, the Armored Titan, pressed the Marleyan military to strike back against Paradis at once, his true reason being wanting to retrieve Gabi and Falco. When Eren engages with the Jaw Titan as the Marleyans attack Shiganshina, Artur and the other prisoners are concerned about the sounds aboveground, and Armin assumes Eren and Zeke made contact and started the Rumbling against the Global Alliance.
Later during the chaos of the battle, Artur is released along with the other prisoners by Onyankopon, and grows slightly impatient as he hears him and the Survey Corps arguing about Eren and Zeke and their goals. They finally make up their minds and decide to support Eren in the battle, and Jean orders Niccolo to go with the Braus family to keep them safe. The group has the young Yeagerist supporters of the 109th Training Corps release all the imprisoned Eldian military members, including Pixis, Commander Nile Dok, Shadis and Roeg, so they can all join the Yeagerists in the battle against the Marleyan troops. On the way out, Artur and Niccolo learn that Mia already escaped captivity with her fellow Warriors and reunited with the rest of the Marleyan military.
As Zeke Yeager joins the Eldian side of the battle as the Beast Titan, and Commander Pixis dispatches his troops, Artur and his whole family follow Niccolo throughout the city's streets in the midst of fierce battle to a safer area. Unbeknownst to them, Falco is under the Military Police's custody, while they know Gabi already reunited with her Marleyan comrades and joined them in the battle. During the fight, Zeke defeats the Marley Air Force and causes one of their airships to crush on Shiganshina's inner gate, blocking the only escape route for anyone without 3DM gear equipment, leaving no option for the Braus family to leave the city. As they're walking, Lisa expresses worry over Mia and Ben, but Artur eases her mind and reassures her, remarking that they're both strong and that they're surely fine. However, Kaya, still profoundly bitter over her savior's demise at "Mia"'s hands, openly expresses her disgust towards her former friends Ben and especially Mia, much to Artur's sadness. Unbeknownst to both him and Kaya, Gabi and Falco overhear this, as well as Falco's brother Colt, and Gabi is nearly moved to tears by Artur and Lisa's words and by Kaya's resentful remarks. At this point, Gabi came to the realization that the Eldians in Paradis Island are people just like herself and everyone else in the world.
As the battle between the Eldian and Marleyan forces rages on, Artur, his family, and Niccolo find an empty building to take refuge in. But events of the battle end up with Zeke screaming and producing numerous mindless Pure Titans, being all the Eldian soldiers who drank the wine marked with Zeke's spinal fluid. Controlled by Zeke, the Titans proceed to wreak havoc, specifically targeting Marleyan soldiers, whilst Artur and his group remain hidden in the building. As the Marley Army struggles against the monsters, a sudden lightning strikes the area of Shiganshina's outer gate and all the Walls of Paradis crumble, awakening the Wall Titans, as the newly-formed Founding Titan starts a full-scale Rumbling. Artur, his family and every single other Subject of Ymir in the world are all summoned to the Paths by Eren Yeager, who declares his intent to exterminate all surface-dwelling life on Earth outside Paradis Island with the Rumbling. Shortly after that, Artur's family is brought back to Niccolo inside the building. However, Zeke no longer seems to control the rampaging Pure Titans, who are now indiscriminately attacking both Marley and Paradis people, as the bigger Wall Titans are marching away with the Founder.
Artur's group is found and attacked by a Pure Titan who was once known as Nile Dok, the Commander of the Military Police Brigade. They flee as Nile chases them in a raging fashion, but Kaya trips and Artur attempts to rush her to save her life, but is narrowly saved and restrained by Niccolo. Despairing, Artur watches in horror as Nile's Titan rushes toward Kaya, but she is saved by the timely arrival of Gabi, who charges face to face against Nile and kills him with a Marleyan anti-Titan rifle. Artur runs toward Gabi to thank her and asks if she is ok, and she explains to him and Niccolo that she came to rescue Falco, whom Artur still identifies as Ben. Gabi explains that Falco, while being safe and a human despite his "wine incident" with Niccolo, has been captured once again by the Survey Corps, so she came back for him. 
The group is interrupted by another group of Yeagerist soldiers, who demand to know who killed Nile's Titan when Artur's company is supposed to be made of civilians. Upon seeing Gabi holding the strange huge weapon, which is completely unknown to Paradis, the Yeagerists realize that the child might be the infamous "brat" intruder from Marley, but Kaya defends her and covers for her by lying, telling the Yeagerists that Gabi is just a member of the Braus family. Niccolo joins her and also covers for Gabi, informing the Yeagerists that he is one of the Marleyan POWs who legally live freely in Paradis and is the one who killed the Titans, due to his background as a Marley soldier and thus knowledge of the anti-Titan weapon (in truth, the rifle is a completely new model in Marley, developed after the Raid on Liberio, while Niccolo has been living in Paradis for 3 years). Artur, Lisa and the other children join the defense for Mia and successfully beg the Yeagerists to take them back to the safety of the military headquarters, where all the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers have gathered. Artur advises Mia to behave and stay with his family for the time being, and encourages her to go rescue Ben the first chance she gets. Artur and the Yeagerists discuss the Rumbling and their brief time in the Paths where they heard Eren's declaration, the latter being something that Niccolo didn't experience due to himself not being a Subject of Ymir. As they walk, Kaya and Mia mend their friendship and both them and Niccolo admit their respective flaws and come to terms with own demons.
After arriving back to the military headquarters and Shiganshina District has been cleared of all the Pure Titans and most of the invading Marley Army, Artur meets Armin and Mikasa, the former expressing relief to see Artur alive again. The two are surprised when Artur brings them to Gabi, as they expected her to have escaped to Marley's retreat airships with the other surviving stragglers. Gabi explains she is not on another quest for revenge and asks them to return Falco to her, so she can retreat with him. She becomes distressed upon being met with uneasy silence by Mikasa and Armin and asks with fear where he is. Armin explains to her that Falco has been taken by Connie Springer after the latter saw Falco's Pure Titan devouring Porco Galliard, which Gabi personally witnessed first-hand, and therefore causing Falco to return human and inherit the Jaw Titan. As a result, Connie took Falco, supposedly to ride him north to the ruins of Ragako village in southern and now former Wall Rose, where his mother Mrs. Springer remained as a Pure Titan under restraint for the past four years, in his bid to restore his mother to humanity by sacrificing Falco to her. Armin goes on to explain to Gabi that Ragako was the site in which the Marleyan military carried out the staging trial version of an attack on Paradis with Zeke's spinal fluid, a fact that is common knowledge in the Marleyan military and that Gabi and Falco already knew. Gabi had argued about it with Kaya several weeks ago, as Kaya's mother was among the casualties of Marley's third Titan attack of the Walls (the small Titan who attacked Kaya, her mother, and Sasha was actually Connie's father). Kaya is visibly surprised to learn that Connie is also a victim of the Ragako mission, as he also lost his family and entire village in it.
Gabi is horrified to hear that Connie plans to sacrifice Falco to his Titan mother, and begs Armin to stop him. She tries to reason that Eren can use the Founding Titan to revert the Titan back to normal, but in turn Armin reasons that Eren would have reverted the Titans in Shiganshina to normal if he could. Gabi despairs and insists she cannot give up on Falco, then points out that Eren stripped Reiner of his armor. She refuses to tell Armin and Mikasa where Reiner is and wants them to save Falco. Artur, his family, and a somber Niccolo hear Gabi lamenting the fact that Eren wants to exterminate all humanity outside Paradis Island, including hers and Niccolo's people, asking why her parents and everyone she knows in Liberio have to die, when Eren should just destroy all the military facilities in the world to prevent attacks on the island. In her desperation, she does not consider the fact that not only Eren has no idea where all the military bases on Earth are, but the Rumbling would still have to trample over much life, infrastructure, flora and fauna to reach every facility. Gabi frantically claims that there is still the possibility that Eren can do anything with the Founding Titan, including avoiding civilian lifes and restore Titans back to humanity, insisting due to the fact that he was able to undo all Titan hardening within the Walls when he transformed into the Founder.
Moments later, the group is alerted that the Volunteers have lost control of Shiganshina and Yelena is no longer in charge; now the Yeagerists betrayed the Volunteers, due to the latters coming from the continent of Marley and about to lose their homes, families and friends to the Rumbling. Therefore, the Yeagerists seized full control of the district, will soon take over the remaining government and the Eldian state, and are now detaining the Volunteers, including Onyankopon, by the orders of Floch, who survived the last events. Floch rules over Shiganshina's ruins now, whilst Yelena lost all her power, and Paradis is left in chaos from the lack of order and numerous casualties caused by the Walls' destruction. This causes Artur, his family, Niccolo, and Gabi to escape from the headquarters before Floch and his soldiers find them, especially Gabi.
As there are a lot of Marley soldier POWs living in Paradis Island, as well as a small crew of guests from Hizuru led by the envoy Kiyomi Azumabito, Armin fears that Floch will arrest them all as well, like he did with the Volunteers, in order to avoid retaliations and the birth of criminal factions for the Rumbling. Thus, Armin urges Niccolo to flee as far from Shiganshina and the Yeagerists for the time being, since the situation is still too chaotic for now. Niccolo decides to flee back with the Braus family to their ranch for now. Armin decided to join Gabi in the attempt to intercept Connie and stop him before it is too late. Armin views Gabi as the necessary key to maintain peace between the Eldians and the Marleyan stragglers from the Revenge for Liberio battle, especially to avoid the wrath of Reiner and Pieck the Cart Titan. Also the Marleyan POW Annie Leonhart has likely returned into the picture at Trost District's headquarters since her four year long coma, as the Rumbling destroyed all the Titan hardening that was present on the island, which is another reason to have Gabi contact her comrades and keep order with them.
The Braus family and Niccolo gather outside the headquarters to see off Armin and Gabi, while Mikasa and Jean keep Floch occupied and unsuccessfully try to reason with him, as he tries to force the Volunteers to join the "New Eldian Empire". Artur is optimistic and insists to Armin that Connie will be hesitant in sacrificing a child (Artur's assumption of Connie later proves correct), even if it is to save his mother. He is confident that Mia and Armin will make it in time to stop Connie. Before Mia departs to save Falco, the Braus family gathers to bid her farewell and Lisa gives her a hug. Kaya speaks to her last, telling her to take care as the two bid each other farewell. Before leaving, Mia tells Kaya that her real name is Gabi and the two share a hug and make peace with each other, much to Artur's relief. Finally, Artur bids Gabi farewell and gives her his black jacket for her to cover herself with, while Niccolo returns her the anti-Titan rifle. Both mounted on their horses, Gabi and Armin ride to the lands of Rose to reach Connie and Falco. 
Artur, his family, and Niccolo are seen again in the final chapter's epilogue, in the year 857, three years after the Rumbling was stopped with the death of Zeke Yeager, and was followed by Eren Yeager's own death after one last fight in the Battle of Heaven and Earth at Fort Salta in Marley. Although much of the world was left devastated, humanity and civilization outside the Walls survived and now lives united under the Global Alliance, having also developed airplanes. Gabi and Falco have not returned to Paradis Island since they left during the Rumbling, and now live in Marley, both in a city and in refugee camps with their surviving families, Levi Ackerman, Onyankopon, and Yelena, giving humanitarian aid to humanity and helping to rebuild the world and heal the environment. Most of the group of commanding officers of the Survey Corps who helped stopping and killing Eren also live in Marley, are members and ambassadors of the Global Alliance, and have not returned on Paradis since the day they left, as they are no longer welcome on the island. Only Mikasa somehow was able to travel back to Paradis and tell Historia and the people about the events.
At Trost District, Artur and his family, including Kaya in her late teens, are walking around whilst they are hastily passed by amidst a fervent crowd, who are giving their militaristic support for Paradis' new Eldian Army parading on the streets and for the eradication of both real and perceived threats to the island state - with Paradis following the same self-destructive path that Marley had taken and going the exact opposite direction of Artur's belief. Artur and Kaya are visibly unhappy with Paradis' militarism and nationalism, as they watch the army's celebration with disappointment, while Niccolo is looking at the scene with contempt, presumably from seeing the Eldian population celebrating the new regime crying for hostility, after Niccolo's homeland suffered the Rumbling.
Despite the efforts of Queen Historia and the Global Alliance ambassadors (including Armin, Reiner, Pieck, Jean, Connie, and Annie for Marley, Kiyomi for Hizuru, and multiple others for other nations) to negotiate peace, the enmities and resentments between the world, Marley, and the island are seen as very unlikely to cool down, and the Rumbling will never be forgotten. While open war might have possibly been avoided during Artur's lifetime, as generations passed, the conflicts of humanity remained, until one unspecified war left Paradis Island completely carpet bombed with nukes and destroyed by unidentified military forces many years later, leaving Paradis in abandoned ruins.
Category:Synopsis