Board Thread:Manga/@comment-5774380-20170508180431/@comment-30069705-20170522085935

We see how Uri Reiss looks like he's already seriously falling apart by 842, yet Rod Reiss looks just fine in 850, and Uri is Rod's younger brother.

If stopping Ymir's curse from claiming any more lives was really as easy as letting the titan shifters die without passing their powers on, you would think they would have done that by now. They probably even tried that, but didn't get the results they hoped for, and meanwhile also got to see that no shifter lasted more than 13 years.

The only reason I can think of as to why the Eldians of before kept the powers if they could easily just get rid of them, even when they knew about their negative effects on their hosts, is that maybe they decided to pass the powers on to older people (like 60 years old or something) to kind of neutralize their negative effects while still keeping the powers, as the titan powers could still be a big thing for the power-hungry (and evidently were).

If they are to stop Ymir's curse from claiming more lives, it will take more than simply letting the shifters die without passing their powers on. If a shifter is to even have a chance of surviving much more than 13 years after first getting the power, there will have to be a way for them to lose the power for good before their time is up without them being eaten to pass their power on to someone else.

I imagine this would require all titan shifters (especially Eren the current Founding Titan holder) and a royal (Zeke, in particular, for already being a titan shifter himself and also a close blood relative of Eren the current Founding Titan holder) to come together at the so-called "Source Of All Organic Matters" to make a final contract that permanently banishes the titan powers.

Of course, this won't bring back the titan shifters that are already dead and gone, including the ones that died prematurely. In particular, I can't shake off this feeling that Annie and Reiner are probably going to die prematurely in the war just like Bertolt did.

What's more, I can't help thinking that even if Zeke doesn't die prematurely in the war or reach the end of his "13 year shifter lifespan", he's definitely still going to die very soon no matter what. If anything, he may even end up being the sacriifice necessary to permanently banish the titan powers.

In other words, this is Attack On Titan, so you can expect more death no matter what.

Otherwise, Ymir's curse and the 13 year rule are real by default.