Attack on Titan Mid-Credits Scene Explained: Does Paradis Island Get Nuked?

In the mid-credits of Attack on Titan: Final Chapters Special 2, we see the passage of time in Paradis Island until we are eventually faced with a more developed Paradis, with skyscrapers and devastating weapons of war.

This is followed by a bunch of stills which seem to depict the island getting carpet-bombed into ruins, followed by one last scene of a boy and his dog walking through a post-apocalyptic society. But did Paradis Island really get nuked? Let’s answer this question below!

Beware of major spoilers for Attack on Titan anime and manga.

Was Paradis Island Nuked in Attack on Titan?

Unfortunately, yes. Both the Attack on Titan anime and manga confirms that Paradis Island gets nuked into oblivion sometime in the future after Mikasa’s death. However, we are not given an exact timeline so the destruction could have happened anywhere from a hundred to a thousand years into the future. 

Related: Attack on Titan Final Chapters Special 2 English Dub Release Date Window

Why was Paradis Island Nuked?

There are a couple of explanations for Paradis getting nuked. The first and more obvious one is that the world did not forgive Eren for the Rumbling and came back for revenge as soon as they could. This is backed by both Armin’s vision of Eren, where he points out that the world would want revenge, and the epilogue where the Yeagerist military prepares to fight the Allied Nations while Armin, Reiner, Jean, Connie, Pieck, and Annie sail to Paradis as ambassadors of peace negotiations.

However, since the bombing likely happened long after Mikasa died of old age, a second explanation emerges. One of the central themes of Attack on Titan is how conflict and war are cyclical. It’s possible that Armin’s group was successful in their mission to negotiate peace between Paradis and the Allied Nations and the world moved on from the Rumbling. But then another conflict emerged decades later and led to Paradis’ destruction.