Board Thread:Manga/@comment-29544173-20170509051932/@comment-34096081-20171226213147

SPOILERS: I just read volume 23, and I don’t believe Ymir’s dead. It was too much of a throw-away death for a character whose theme is about living a life of their choosing. While there isn’t enough evidence to prove the theory, but I would point to a few things that are worth consideration, beyond the character herself, the author’s statement about her importance in the finale of the series, and the rather lax way she is written off of the story.

So first, Reiner is clearly planning something against the Marley army. He’s planning to pass the armored titan off to someone else; his statements at dinner about how “evil” the “devils” on Paradis are were clearly sarcastic; he seems disenchanted following the failed mission behind the walls and coming to terms with the fact that he is a pawn in a political machine that’s cost him his best friend at the hands of his own people (the Eldians within the walls). The direct correlations between little Reiner and little Eren seem to suggest that he may be coming to terms with the error of his ways. Reiner is planning something, and it is probably some sort of redemption plan and it would almost certainly include Ymir. I don’t think he would just let her die, but he may have some rouse up his sleeve to make people believe she has.

Also, we don’t know if Reiner and the scouts planned something together and Reiner is executing it in Marley. He was in their captivity for some time, and the series has a propensity to jump backwards and show you scenes that happened out of sequence to explain events that occur later on. A plan certainly could have been devised and set in motion that’ll only be explained further down the line.

In addition, there is a repeated trope in the series with things being more obvious than the characters perceive. For example, when the characters are trying to decide whether Annie is the female titan, and are giving reasons and rationalizations as to how she may be, Mikasa eventually says, “there’s the fact that the female titan looks like Annie.” This happens a number of times, where a character points out that things are more obvious than they appear. In that regard, the Jaw Titan controlled by Porco looks nothing like Ymir’s titan. This could be another red herring (perhaps Ymir not Marcel ever controlled the Jaw titan?). Admittedly, we’ve only seen the Attack Titan used by more than one person (Eren Kruger, Grisha Yeager, Eren Yeager), and while there were clear similarities to each iteration, it is also arguably the most generic looking of the 9 unique titans we’ve seen. That said though, Porco’s titan and Ymir’s titan are arguably the most different looking of all the titans we’ve seen, and I think there is more going on there than we are being told.

Lastly, the theme of memory manipulation is used throughout, and we know memories can be transferred through ways other than one Eldian consuming another, so Porco could be tricked into believing he ate Ymir, and that’s why he has the memories. In fact, Porco could even be in on it, and the conversation we see between Reiner and Porco could be them rehearsing their parts.

Anyway, I have no proof! But I’ve read a lot of comics and books to know when there is more going on then we are being shown, and Reiner’s clear discontent mixed with the brush off of Ymir’s death all feels like the author disarming the readers to surprise us later on. Admittedly, I also just want Ymir to be alive, so this is motivated by personal hopes that she is. All in all, it seemed too nonchalant from a series that, though pretty bonkers, is nothing short of meticulous when presenting its revelations.