Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20190908104148/@comment-27125793-20190908184737

He's a Beast! I call him Eren.~

This was a suitably dark chapter. I admit, after the last chapter's ending, I'd half-expected some overtly idealistic conclusion or follow up, but this really surprised me. Eren was a real monster in this chapter (in all the right ways). In a way, everything he did is still Eren, but there's also, at the same time, some added depth.

I have to disagree with a previous comment that Eren is disensetized to the death of others. He cried when Sasha died, the whole reason he talked to Reiner was because he'd been hesitating at the thought of killing innocent civilians and hoped to find the resolve through him, and we all saw him try to stop Zeke from using his scream. Sure, he's way calmer and more controlled than before, and his ability to hide his emotions is better than most, but he's neither heartless or an emotionless machine.

I'm glad we FINALLY got the long-awaited answer to the most anticipated question of the recent years: the Attack Titan's power. At the start, like everybody else, I'd thought that the reason Kruger mentioned Mikasa and Armin was becuase the Paths transcended both space and time. However, it now appears the latter is unique only to the Attack Titan (and Ymir Fritz most likely). In fact, it would explain the first chapter's name, the one saying 'to you, 2000 years from now' being Ymir. Therefore, it's also possible she foresaw the Fritz family's future through the future memories of the Founding Titan successor's. It's also possible she ensured for this exact reason that one of the Nine had that particular power.

Furthermore, when you look back on everything, it's been hinted at that only Attack Titan wielders had the power to view future memories. In the first chapter, we see exactly that happen to Eren, after which he cried, not knowing why. It also pretty much says that Isayama had planned this since the beginning. True, Eren hadn't been a shifter yet, but the Paths can be pretty flexible from what we've seen, so it's not impossible.

Another thing of interest is Grisha begging Zeke to stop Eren, saying something terrible would happen. Many, including Zeke, think that Eren is the one that would do something terrible to others, but I find that's wrong. No, most likely, Eren's plan has something terrible happening to Eren himself. Grisha is his father, so it would explain him being so distraught. Furthermore, there was that panel of Eren saying "that scenery" with a longing look in his eyes. Despite Eren's ability to kill innocents, we've never once seen him revel in it. Both during the Liberio attack and in Grisha's memories of the attack on the Reiss family, he was only ever solemn, looking like he wished another VIABLE course had been available, but fully resigned to the fact that there was only the blood-stained path he was walking and unwilling give up because of it.

When you look at him from multiple perspectives, Eren's a way more complicated and multi-faceted character than most give him credit for, and thsi chapter is one of the few that's especially good at showing it.

Plus, him tearing off parts of his hands to escape the chains and reach Ymir was badass.