***THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 PART 2, READER'S DISCRETION IS ADVISED***
It's pretty much known that sometimes, numbers in Attack on Titan don't make sense.
And the case of the Rumbling is a peculiar one.
During Armin and Eren's last conversation in the Paths, Eren tells his best friend that 80% of humanity will be crushed under the Colossal Titans
This percentage has always made me scratch my head.
80% of humanity is a lot, especially if we find ourselves on a planet as big as Earth.
Hypothetically speaking, since the Attack on Titan world is simply our planet simply reversed by 180° (read my article "Where is the main story located?" to learn more!), and that the technology (and ideologies) the characters find in Marley can be assigned to the period between the year 1900 and 1920, at that point in history, our planet counted around 2 billion (2.000.000.000) inhabitants.
80% percent of 2 billion (2.000.000.000) is 1,6 billion (1.600.000.000).
How did Eren manage to kill this many people? To just try to answer to this question we have to understand how the Rumbling worked.
I have three hypotheses on how it worked:
1) The Rumbling was a widespread action.
As the map below shows, this first hypothesis basically implies that the Colossal Titans' march is just straightforward, with Eren leading the way until Fort Salta.
This hypothesis could explain the number of deaths, if we suppose that the Marleyan continent and the Middle East were the most populous continents of the planet, but doesn't explain why certain places, like the unnamed east-asian country (probably Hizuru) and other countries more racially different than Marley were destroyed too. (image below)
First Hypothesis
Countries perishing because of the Rumbling
2) The Rumbling was completely directed by Eren.
This hypothesis instead of justifying the number of deaths it justifies the manga panels (image above) and the reason of the Rumbling
Eren, in chapter 132 discusses with Yelena on how to limit the Global Alliance's power before they could attack Paradis, during the last conversation with Armin says "They won't be able to go to battle" (image above), and later, after the Battle of Heaven and Earth, the Jaegerist militarize Paradis Island fearing retaliations for the Rumbling.
Eren wonders if the plan to attack Acirfa (or Karifa) will work
Yelena assures Eren about the plan
The Jaegerist re-militarize Paradis Island
To prevent the immediate retaliation of the Global Alliance against Eldia and Paradis island, Eren was "forced" to destroy the major powers of the Earth - this meant for Eren the destruction of Marley, the betrayal of Hizuru and also the destruction of Acirfa (or Karifa) and Fort Salta, to pulverize the Global Fleet and the Marleyan Air force.
How could he do that? Well, by simply commanding the various groups of Colossal Titans and sending them towards the major nations' capitals and leading himself the charge towards Acirfa and Fort Salta.
This is how probably he could have acted:
Second Hypothesis
3) A mix of the two
Since both of the two hypotheses make sense but satisfy only one of the two conditions (the first one being that the major nations of the world have been destroyed and the second one being that the 80% of the world population), the number of Colossal Titans (approximately 170.000 Titans! - the number is given by the sum of the approximate perimeter of the three Walls, which is 3.396 km or around 2.110 miles, divided by the approximate width of the Colossal Titan, 20 m or 65 ft - hence 3.396.000 / 20 = 169.800) would allow Eren to enact both plans: lead various Colossal groups to specific locations of the Earth whilst the rest would simply march forward.
Third Hypothesis
And this is it. Hope you enjoy this theory and Happy 2022!
**DISCLAIMER** This is a work of fiction. It does not intend to replace or make a parody of any of the original work made by manga artist Isayama Hajime. All the rights reserved to their respective owners.
Thank you for reading,
Alesmat.
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