The latest chapter has got me thinking a lot about Eren’s endgame and the motivation behind his actions. Here is overview:
Why did Eren tell Mikasa that he hated her?
For starters, we’ve learned that Eren lied to Mikasa about her being a slave and hating her. But why did he do that? Well, I think his interaction with Historia gives us the answer.
As expected, Historia is going along with Eren’s genocidal plan but reluctantly so. She can’t live with the guilt of killing so many innocent people and Eren says that he will absolve her of that guilt by manipulating her memories. That is likely why she looks so miserable in those earlier chapters.
Now I believe that Eren lied to Mikasa because she would have followed him with his plan but he can’t erase her memory. So he tries to make her hate him by saying hurtful things so she would not have innocent blood on her hands and live with the guilt. As shown in this chapter Mikasa is still not willing to kill him.
Why did Eren tell send tell all the Subjects of Ymir about the Rumbling?
We also learn in this chapter that a military fleet is ready for the Rumbling at Liberio and we only see soldiers in the streets hinting at an evaluation. So the Marleyans eventually took the Eldians’ warning about the Rumbling being activated seriously.
I believe that this is exactly what Eren wanted. The purpose of the message was to warn the Eldians around he world so they can evaluate the areas and move to Paradise. Because he did tell them that all life outside the island will be wiped out and so it is the safest place in the world. Hell, Floch was shown to be willing to let non-Eldians live on the island if they pledge loyalty to Eldia.
How will the series end?
I believe that the Rumbling will succeed. Paradise will act as an ethnostate much like Israel to add to the many Judaism parallels.
Now Eren said that the only way to stop the cycle of revenge is to remove that history of hatred. So I believe the next step in Eren’s plan will be to manipulate the memory of the Subjects of Ymir to prevent conflict between the natives of Paradise and the foreigners. They will forget their Eldian history and think that the world was destroyed by Titans long ago. Basically, going go back to square one. While the Colossal Titans roam the world outside of Paradise so that no one will question the made-up history.
People like Gabi will think that Liberio was surrounded by walls that eventually fell due to the Colossal Titans and that is what killed her friends. Believing that her family retreated to Paradise for safety.
Eren will remove the Titan power from the shifters so they could have a full life. Annie and Reiner will be ignorant of their crimes. Might see Annie reunite with her father at Paradise.
I think Levi will have his final showdown with Zeke and die in the end. While Mikasa will be the last Ackerman and keep the secret of the world’s history after Eren dies four years later. We will see Eren laying in front of tree, as Mikasa says: “See you later. Eren.”
Like Karl Fritz, Eren’s vision of “true peace” is a world ruled by Titans.