User blog comment:San&Ashitaka/Chapter 57 review/@comment-93.209.37.150-20140506162513/@comment-93.209.8.74-20140506190326

Yes, Eren did not die in the Titan stomach back then. That's exactly my point. He survived being eaten by a Titan, and the Titan died. My point is that they (Reiss) want to try something which failed in the past. That is why I suggested that they will drug Eren, because as long as he's conscious it's unlike that having him eaten by a Titan will be successful. I did in no way suggest that the Reiss family has no Titan. Question is how they got one. Explains actually why Reiner and Berthold killed the captured Titans (aside from hiding the truth about them), they wanted to avoid that the Reiss familiy gets more of them for their schemes.

"There are no flaws in the story." Great. That's what I'm getting told about the Bible by the respective people. I did not even imply that there are flaws in the story, I said that what Hanji says could be flawed. If I got it right - and translation matters here - Ymir "stole" the shifting ability from Reiner's and Berthold's people. Those mysterious guys who shift into Titans without a skin (Ymir's Titan form has a skin, I noted that). Then she ran away and was only able to shift back into a human form after eating Berwick. (Just like it is implied that Eren had to eat his dad, and Anny likewise.) Hanji's theory is that Ymir was "originally" a Titan (= a human who was turned into a Titan against her will like the rest of mankind) which happened to eat Berwick, THEN acquiring the shifting ability.

This seems to be a minor issue, however the result is that you don't gain the shifter ability by eating shifters, so Hanji would be wrong and what they plan with Eren would be open again. I don't say that Isayama made a mistake here, I am saying that Isayama is providing us with false conclusions via Hanji to distract us from the truth. The important point is how Ymir acquired the shifting ability in the first line - by eating Berwick as a "normal" Titan, or by stealing it from Reiner's and Berthold's people as a human, shifting (without ever consuming someone) and then going back human after eating Berwick. If the second is true, Hanji's theory seems to be null and void. However, both could be the same - eating Berwick to gain the shifter ability could be called "stealing" it. I need to check up what is known about Ymir's past when I have the time.

As for Erwin, I did not say that he is dead, I merely pointed out that they lost what is supposed to be their best brain, a disadvantage to say the last. Ackermann could be a Titan shifter - it's possible when he works for the Reiss guys. But that is speculation.