Board Thread:Manga/@comment-5239435-20160910030604

Clearly, this chapter shows humanity is not extinct beyond the Walls and is in fact better off than the people within it, being at the technological level of our world in the late 19th Century at least. That said, the Titan Shifters kept attacking the Walls in an attempt to wipe out humanity, supposedly. This contradiction confused me but I've come up with a theory that might explain everything, which I'll break down into specific points:

1. Humanity outside the Walls managed to find a way to effectively fight back against the Titan Shifters and their Titan Hordes but, eventually, it became clear that neither side could completely destory the other, meaning that the war has ground to a stalemate a la WW1 (in that it is a never ending stalemate).

On a side note, some aspects of the culture of the humans might've influenced the culture of the Titan Shifters, which explains things like Zeke's apparant knowledge of, and fondness for, baseball.

2. The First King of the people in the Walls, which happened to be deep into what became part of the Titan Shifter's territory, believed that humanity had indeed been wiped out outside the Walls and this mindset was helped by both their location and the isolation from the rest of humanity caused said location. Despite developing the power to possibly winning the war, however, the First King went mad and didn't use it, causing him and his descendant (the Reiss Family) to go on unaware of their possibly importance to their own kingdom and to the wider war being fought outside the Walls.

3. Eventually Grisha, a Titan Shifter on the side of the Humans beyond the Walls, ends up on a journey that culminates in him finding the Walls, the people who live in it, and the powers and knowledge that can finally tip the balance in the greater conflict raging elsewhere.

4. Unfortunately the Titan Shifters learned of his presence on their turf, traced his steps, and found the Walls, which they had previously been unaware of. They then learned of the importance of what lay within the Walls and decided to attack it in order to destroy it, the Reiss, and Grisha, and either destroy or acquire the knowledge and powers that lay within before the humans outside the Walls or within them learned of each other's existence, found a way to link up with each other, and give humanity enough strength to finally defeat the Titans.

5. Grisha possibly planned to inform the powers in the Walls of all of this but was unsuccessful, possibly due to Reiss mental instability induce by the will of the First King as well as political intrigue, and had to find a way to do so that dealt with both these issues but, right when he found a possible solution, the attack on Shinganshina happened.

6. The attack on Shinganshina, and the subsequent fall of Wall Maria, forced Grisha to change his plans in a way that required Eren and co. to complete it and finish his work.

Let me know what you think of this idea. 