Board Thread:Theories/@comment-28194879-20160412194627

By humanity, I strictly mean the habitants living behind the walls. They represent something so terrible that the "warriors" living beyond the walls are dead serious about eradicating every last one of them.

The opposing camp is (or rather was) the nobility. They were decided to keep humanity inside the walls. The reason for that is probably the same reason why the warriors' homeland wants to eradicate humanity: what I call an "original sin". And finally, between these two factions, you have the Survey Corps who know nothing and just try to survive.

This is by far the most interesting mystery I ever considered in any fiction since reading Agatha Christie's novels. Bertolt and Reiner always striked me as fundamentally good individuals (I don't believe for a second they are assholes), so when we learned they were responsible for the genocide of thousands of humans, I immediately asked myself: Why ? What reason could there be for such good persons to commit such an atrocity ? A reason that would make even me, that would make ANYONE do the same in their shoes! It has to be the plot of the decade.

The same can be said about the Reiss. I have read in another topic they are "terrible" for keeping humanity inside, but I dont think so at all. Just like Reiner and Bertolt, I am convinced they were good people, because we know they only wanted to free humanity from the titans just like any of us...until the coordinate is passed to them, after which point they become aware of the original sin and suddenly change their minds.

In Chapter 78, there is this very interesting page.





Armin speculates the reason behind the genocide (behind everything really), is that they are descendants of evil. I've read this theory several times, that humanity did something bad that's why they need to pay. But Bertolt (by extension, Isayama) quickly dismisses that. Which relieved me a lot, it wouldn't make any sense to kill so many people because of the crimes of their ancestors. We probably all have an evil person at some point in our bloodline, which doesn't make us evil too. Bertolt aknowledges this, yet he says "but still, you must all perish. It's just too late". (Oh, now how I wish Mikasa would have let him explain himself lol) This confirms the original sin is not only present inside humanity's ancestors, but in every human from behind the walls. It is evidently something they are, not just something they did. But what could justify genocide (for the Warriors) ? Or, slightly lighter punishment, keeping them trapped inside the walls forever (for the Reiss) ? It took me months to come up with a theory of my own.

Yes, there is actually a situation in which I would fully support a genocide. In which probably every single person would agree a genocide must be done: zombie apocalypse.

"I’ll kill every last one of them!" This quote from Eren would appear worthy of Adolf Hitler if he was talking of anything else than the Titans. But if that's the Titans, then it's okay, because we all agree they must die. Because they are monsters, not human anymore, we can't save them anyway. "It's just too late", as said Bertolt. Genocide is a terrible deed against humans, heck even against animals it is seen as an horrible crime. But against zombies ? It's okay.

So that must be it. The only reason why Bertolt, Annie and Reiner are so determined about killing the habitants living behind the wall is...that they are not human. At least, not anymore. In which way ? They are not evil after all. Well, their ancestors must have committed something that changed their very nature, we can compare this as eating the forbidden fruit in the Genesis (hence why the Original Sin is an appropriate nickname). After eating this "fruit", these people must have lost every shred of humanity, and have become no better than Titans to the eyes of the Warriors. This trait must have been passed to all their descendants, and the only thing making them act like humans is the coordinate's influence. Should the coordinate die, then Armin, Jean, Erwin, and everybody would go mad, and turn into monsters...probably way worse than Titans considering the Warriors decided to not take the risk and eliminate them premptively.

Now about what kind of "monster" we are talking: it could be figurative (picture the infected from I Am a Legend or World War Z...zombie-like, batshit-crazy humans), or litteral (then we have to imagine what could be worse than Titans. Which is not easy lol. Titans with wings ?)

And bonus: from there, we can guess what is inside the basement of Eren's house. Every person aware of the Original Sin agrees that humanity must be either kept jailed behind the wall (Reiss), or eliminated altogether (Warriors). Since Grisha was definitely opposed to the Reiss, then he must prefer the Warriors' solution. Meaning, in the basement must be a switch that could swiftly kill all humanity, that only the coordinate holder could activate, and Grisha wants Eren to use it, for the sake of the non-tainted humanity living outside the Walls.

That, or he is a genius who found a cure to remove the dormant monster inside them. I believe the switch-theory was Isayama's prototype scenario where everyone dies, and the cure-theory must be where we're headed now.

Did anyone come up with another theory for the Original Sin's nature ? As of now I still can't imagine how it would not involve the humans being potential monsters.  