Board Thread:Theories/@comment-27441457-20151225042055/@comment-26932251-20160607095720

I think it being a prison fits... if you look at the storyline, it seems apparent that the world within the walls seems more to keep people in than its stated purpose of keeping the titans out.

I mean, if the world really was annihilated to all hell by titans then why would the government make it illegal if anybody went outside the walls, they'd just get killed. And also the reference to them being a 'cursed race' suggests that they're descendants of criminals. Technological development is intentionally stifled. Curiosity in the outside world is declared taboo.

To be honest, I find it a little implausible that King Reiss, who seems responsible for the titans' existence in the world, would basically exterminate the rest of humanity except for a very small sliver of people inside the walls, I mean, King Reiss and his descendants are ideologues to be sure, but even for them that seems quite extreme especially since that would make him the biggest sinner by and large. I think the notion that the world within the walls is a prison and a tiny swath of the actual world and everyone else is minding their own business seems a lot more plausible because it doesn't necessitate King Reiss be a character who would do something as eye-brow raising as unilaterally deciding that billions of humans deserved to be condemned to death except for a small portion of mostly central European descended peoples and what the fuck is that about by the way? He just decided to kill off all humans of every other race? I mean, try to reconcile that thinking.

"Oh, humanity are sinners, so I'm going to exterminate every other ethnicity and culture except for Europeans as part of my grand plan to save humanity from being sinners." Like that would take some serious cognitive dissonance to try to build a future for the human condition defined by peace founded on a completely unprecedented amount of crimes against humanity. Like, second place analogues in human history are so far away from what King Reiss did that there's just nothing.

Instead, King Reiss and his descendants are basically just wardens. A much more plausible outcome. We'll see.

And I think you're not quite seeing how interesting the premise of a world that is a prison really is. The potential for conflict in that. Eren is very driven by idealistic devotion towards the concept of freedom but will he still be as devoted when he knows what the people of the world within the walls are really like or will he choose to be the next warden? The next First King?