Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20190908104148/@comment-27125793-20190920133656

You're missing the point! It isn't really about the ability to change the future. The fact is, Eren did get a glimpse of the future, but in order to acquire it, he still had to act. He still had to kill innocent civilians, betray friends and allies and take risks, all the time unaware if this was the best way that future is going to be reached.

Furthermore, we, as readers, are still unaware of what that future is. Only things we know are that it's so 'ghastly' that Grisha, an Eldian Restorationist, seemed to prefer Zeke's Euthanasia over it. However, in what way it is 'ghastly' is uncertain. It's all about that uncertainity, that tension, that desire to know what did Eren see that would make him willing to act the way he has thus far, and when we do see it, if we think it was worth it, and so on. It's only here, at the very end, that all of this is revealed, which just makes the sense of tension and curiosity all the stronger.

The past, present and future all affirm one another. Eren, in the future, had to act and intervene in order for Grisha to kill the Reiss family. And all the characters are creations of their past experiences, and what they do now makes this future that they're all unaware off. Free will still matters.

Fact is, yeah, it's a fixed timeline, with a very certain result about to happen, but in the end, this result can still only be reached with the abilities and effort of all the characters who lived up until now. Like I mentioned with Grisha, that's how the Attack Titan's ability matters. Not only does Grisha act on the memeories of the future, but Eren makes certain events in the past occur the way he wants them to, makes certain characters act the way he wants them to, because of that same ability. The Attack Ttan's ability is one the things that makes this fixed future possible, that allows Eren to be the character that will change things.

And in the end, it's Eren's glimpse of the future that drives the narattive in these last two arcs, the decisions he made based on his vision that have far reaching consequences. As I said earlier, another thing that matters a lot is the fact it was only revealed to us here at the very end. We either didn't know what Eren was trying to accomplish here or we thought we did, but the basis for his character change was a mystery. Isayama gave seeming hints that made us think of certain reasons or results, again fooling us into thinking we knew why Eren acted in certain ways. That allowed him to catch us off guard with revelations and twists multiple times.And still, now with the knowledge of the Attack Titans, we still don't know everything; what the ultimate goal is, or Grisha's interpretation of 'ghastly'. We know Eren's gonna stop Ymir because it's his wish that will come true, but it amps us up to see how he does it, since stopping her should be impossible, and again, for a wish that we have no knolwedge of.

There are, in fact, good tales and stories in which the ending is known, but it's the journey to that end that, how it comes to that, that makes them interesting.

I have never been more anxious for a following AoT chapter than I have been for 122.