Board Thread:Manga/@comment-35706171-20190411224354/@comment-1327106-20190413015014

I suspect King Fritz was a politically weak king. He might have had power in terms of being able to manipulate his people's memories, and even their bodies if Xaver's research is true, but he didn't end the war and infighting between the Eldian noble houses that possessed the various Titans. If he was a particularly strong and well respected king, he ought to have been able to make strides towards ending the infighting.

Instead he took the back door way out and only took a fraction of his people with him to an island before shutting the door on the rest of the world.

He probably did this because he felt that even if he forced change on his people in the greater world, he wouldn't have been able to control what happened afterwards, no matter how much mind or body manipulation he did. Isolating everyone on Paradis was a complete control move, because he was able to set up everything just the way he wanted unless the outside world came barging in, and for a hundred years he did a pretty good job of it.