Fridge / Attack on Titan

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Fridge Brilliance

• The second ending for the anime, "Great Escape", has some masterfully done foreshadowing. At first, it shows Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, Connie, and Jean. People who would do anything to protect their friends and the people they care about. Then it shows Annie, Reiner, Bertolt, Ymir, and Krista. People who all have secrets to hide...
• Early episodes of the anime will recap the destruction of Wall Maria from Armin, over scenes of the Colossal and Armored Titan, with the following monologue: "In the year 845, two terrifying new breeds of Titan appeared, the Colossal and the Armored, barreling through the walls as if wholesale destruction were child's play." That's the thing. For them, it was child's play, being no older than eleven and twelve when they committed those acts.
• Reiner and Bertolt look younger than they should have, in Reiner's flashback to when he witnessed a Titan devour his friend. It's because it happened prior to them breaching the Wall and infiltrating the human ranks.
• Why does the Colossal Titan appear on the exact day that Eren graduates from his training, five years after its first appearance? Because the Colossal Titan is Bertolt, another of the Trainees graduating and being inducted into the military. It's the first time he's had the freedom to access the Wall without arousing suspicion.
• When Connie brings up what his group saw in his Doomed Hometown, Reiner tells him to be quiet, and Ymir jokes around to take his mind off of it, something Reiner asks her to keep doing so he won't worry. Since Reiner is the Team Dad, we can understand why. When The Reveal about him and Bertolt comes around, however, it becomes clear that his main concern was keeping Connie from thinking about the Titan on his house that resembled his mother and even greeted him like a mother would. Note how he only tells Connie to stop talking about it when that part of the story comes up.
• Whose idea is it to save the Rogue Titan, and who pipes up in favor? Reiner and Annie, respectively. Annie even appears to be addressing Bertolt behind her when she says that the Titan could prove to be an ally.
• The Titan forms of all the known Titan Shifters bear at least some resemblance to their human form. The Dancing Titan has Ymir's black hair. The Female Titan shares Annie's big nose and blonde hair. The Armored Titan shares not only Reiner's hairstyle, but even his Heroic Build. The Colossal Titan is able to peek over the Wall and Bertolt is 6'3. Finally, the Rogue Titan has the same wild-eyed look and memorable bright green eyes as Eren. Interestingly, the Colossal Titan is the closest of them to having the Uncanny Valley disproportionate appearance typical of Titans. This may hint towards Bertolt's claims that he has "no will of his own" and therefore has less of a sense of self than the others.
• The Titan Shifters' Morphic Resonance appears consistent with all except the Dancing Titan, which frankly looks nothing like Ymir save for hair color. However, it all makes sense if you consider that she has the Jaw Titan which does not really seem to resemble its shifter so much. Ymir's Titan notably lacks breasts in both scenes it's in, which would be strange, but the only titan with breasts is the Female Titan. The Smiling Titan, Dina Fritz's titan, and the Warhammer Titan do not have female features, even though they were women. Her Titan also notably looks much smaller and slightly different than when she becomes the Dancing Titan. Ymir's Dancing Titan is also notably smaller than the other Shifters', which would make little sense given that she's as old as them at 17 and ought to produce a 15-meter like the rest of them. this is because she has the Jaw Titan. The Jaw Titan is smaller than the other shifters, but it is also much faster and has powerful jaw and claws
• Armin asks Jean and Reiner to cover their heads with their hoods before fighting the Female Titan so she won't kill them (in case one of them is Eren), but Reiner removes his hood again right before engaging her, as he obviously needs her to recognize him.
• When Reiner is grabbed by the Female Titan, pay close attention and he turns his head and winks at her, in addition to carving the words into her palm. Plus he somehow survived being squashed, and there's steam briefly coming from his head while carrying Armin. And throughout the scene we keep hearing inner monologues from Armin and Jean, but never from Reiner.
• You know that one image of the history of humanity, with the people fleeing the Titans? With what looks like runes? Turns out they're a Genius Bonus for anyone willing to decipher them. "People fleeing their homes due to the appearance of the Titans. Unable to match the overwhelming force of the Titans, humanity was forced to sail to a new world. At this time, most of humanity had been annihilated, but the majority of this was at the hands of their fellow humans. Those who gained passage aboard the ships were only a small fraction composed of the rich and powerful. The voyage was rough; about half [of the ships?] vanished without reaching the other shore. In the new world, great Walls had originally been prepared. This new continent, we shall revere as sacred. Within these Walls are the ideals of humanity. Within these Walls, let us create a world eternally without strife." Suddenly, so many things either make horrible sense or leave even more horrifying questions in their place.
• Why didn't the Armored Titan ever show up at the Battle of Trost? Because Reiner decides to follow Jean's order to run to HQ rather than stick to the original plan — just look at Annie and Bert's hesitancy when he bolts. Also, they found out who's inside the Rogue Titan, making them to reconsider their decision.
• The Walled City seems to have a serious problem with institutionalized classism, with the wealthiest and most talented being given the best and safest places to live, while everyone else is more or less expected to die to maintain the city. The people who originally founded the Walls and founded the City inside it were the wealthiest people in the world at the time. When they had to set up a system of government, naturally they would build it around the idea of preserving their own status.
• Bertolt makes a big deal about having wanted to join the Military Police Brigade, stating he would probably quit if he failed to rank. However, he ends up being one of several people to enlist in the Recon Corps, a decision he doesn't look too happy about. This was a result of Eren's powers derailing their original plan, which would have required him to be one of those given access to the Interior. Dot Pixis points out that the loss of Wall Rose would result in an even greater purge of the surviving population, and only those with influence or a position within the Military Police would be safe from it. It also would have given him access to Wall Sina without arousing suspicion. But since Reiner joins the Recon Corps in order to remain close to Eren and aid their eventual plan to kidnap him, Bertolt has little choice but to follow him.
• If kidnapping Eren was the primary goal of Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt, then why didn't the others transform to help Annie accomplish that mission? Simple. Because their primary mission was actually to locate the Founding Titan, which had not yet shown himself and if Eren turned out to not be the "Coordinate", still having some of them undercover would help their search efforts.
• More of a 'heh, double meaning' observation, but during the trial, Eren basically tells the court to leave Mikasa out of it (with their panicked suspicions that she might be a Titan, too) and that he might be a monster, but she's got nothing to do with it. While he obviously means 'monster' in the literal Titan sense, he's probably also acknowledging his (brought up at the trial as well) pitiless killing of Mikasa's kidnappers as a child.
• Jean is extremely negative about humanity's chances against the Titans, and is very vocal about wanting to join the Military Police Brigade so that he can live a safe, comfortable life. Now remember that he's from the Trost District, which was safely within the interior until Wall Maria fell. Afterwards, it was flooded with refugees and became the new front line with everyone fully expecting it to be attacked by the Colossal Titan at any point. He went from being completely safe, to living with the constant fear of the Titans and probably witnessed the brutal toll fighting took on the Survey Corps. Little surprise he became desperate to escape that, and return to the safe life he once knew.
• Why was Jean automatically trusted and included within the group carrying out the operating within Wall Sina? Because he'd already been cleared of suspicion due to being in the group told that Eren was on the left flank. Since the attack came from the right flank, he couldn't have been the guilty party.
• It's a little weird that the regular Titans walk around, some of them with surprisingly well-kept haircuts and groomed facial hair. They don't age, at all, including hair and nail growth. It's also why they don't need to eat; their bodies don't consume resources to grow.
• In a scene early on, Eren is briefly shown to have steam coming out of his head.◊ A viewer can simply dismiss it as High-Pressure Emotion. It turns out to be a huge case of Foreshadowing to his ability to turn into a Titan. What's more, a scene later on has Reiner have steam come off of his back, also pinpointing him as a Titan Shifter.
  • Another bit of Foreshadowing is when the Colossal Titan appears for the second time and Eren briefly tries to fight it. Despite being hit directly by the steam that was established to be fatal for normal humans, Eren is unharmed. Presumably, much like when he was in the Santa Titan's stomach and was unharmed by the boiling blood, him being a Titan Shifter allowed him to handle extremely hot temperatures.
• Ymir comments that she lived 60 years as a normal Titan, with her consciousness trapped in a state of constant nightmare, unable to control her actions. Zoë was right! There ARE human beings inside of Titans and most of them probably aren't malicious and would stop eating humans if they could. Of course, whether or not she can contact them is another story, but now her treatment of Sonny and Bean is completely spot-on, if still futile.
• Almost all the people that fight Titans are short and very slim. It is outright stated that a lot of people are unimpressed at Levi being The Ace and being so scrawny and short. But when you fight by flinging yourself through the air, swinging on ropes, and aiming at a very precise weak point with All-Or-Nothing attacks, being small and light is much better than outright physical strength per se. So it is very Justified. Also Truth in Television, as any activity that focuses on speed and precision will result in a lean appearance. Gymnasts in particular are on the shorter side, as it's much easier to control their bodies and avoid injury while in close proximity to equipment.
• Since Levi is a near-legendary figure, people probably have unrealistic expectations of him. Plus, he is much shorter than most of the cast; this probably surprises people more than his scrawniness.
• Eren tells Levi that he's much more talkative now in the aftermath of his team's death. Levi says he's always talks this much. Cue a panel showing that they're the only two in a large mess hall. This could imply that yeah, Levi isn't very talkative to Eren. They've only just met. When he's around his now annihilated team, he probably speaks much more, thus accenting how much more alone he's suddenly become.
• It seems like it was too risky for Annie to kill the captured Titans. It wasn't likely that the new experiments were going to reveal anything. However, Eren was supposed to be involved in the experiments. Eren, who they already suspected of being the Coordinate. In other words, had the power to control Titans.
• Why is Eren's Titan power the ability to control other Titans? Notice that he's the one who inspires others to follow his example of being a total badass.
• In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that humans didn't actually build the Walls. So, humans built these three massive Walls a hundred years ago before the Titans could eat them all, but when the Colossal Titan creates a hole, they have no way of sealing it? You do the math.
  • Turns out a human did build the Walls, and that was the [145th] King of Eldia, who owned the Founding Titan. The Titan had the power to reseal the holes the Colossal Titan made, but the Kings of the Walls were too jaded to help the people of the Walls, as they viewed them all as Karma Houdini and wanted someone to end the Devils.
• During the Female Titan's attack on the Recon Squad, Reiner, Armin, and Jean meet up and realize the Female Titan is hunting Eren. Each of them mentions that they have Eren's position within the formation in a different location, but Reiner reveals that his map said Eren was in the rear of the right wing. Where did the Female Titan first attack? The rear of the right wing. It's proof that Annie and Reiner are working together, as Annie, a member of the Military Police, could have only gotten that information from Reiner.
• It may or may not be intentional, but when Annie spars with Eren in Episode 4, there's a split second where she covers her neck with her arm.
• Why does the otherwise aloof Annie seem so savvy about the contradictions of the society inside the Walls? Because she comes from somewhere outside the Walls, and wasn't brought up to consider it "normal".
• When the Female Titan and Eren fight, she hardens her fist and socks him one clean and very hard, enough to completely dislocate his jaw and nearly punch it right off. She's making sure that, if she does get backed into a corner, he won't be able to bite her out of her nape.
• Notice that when Mikasa is chasing the Female Titan, Annie tries her best at escaping rather than attacking her no matter how much she's slicing her up (which, especially in the manga appears to have been a lot). She eventually throws a punch once, though it's seemingly to warn her off more than an attempt at harming her. When Levi whom Annie doesn't know appears however, she almost immediately lunges for him while still ignoring Mikasa. Armin wasn't the only fellow trainee Annie didn't want to kill.
• Wall Sina, Goodbye gives us the revelation that Annie has nothing against humanity and considers her mission stupid/meaningless, but ruthlessly follows through with it none the less. It would likely explain why she refers to herself as a "weak girl" wishing "people who go with the flow to be considered human too", when that's exactly what she's doing; following a mission despite not believing in it, considering herself too mentally weak to defy it.
• In a Meta sense, there is a reason Eren is the protagonist, besides his inspiring levels of determination, which is not lost on too many characters. Look back to when he met Mikasa, especially the aftermath when his father chews him out. Eren argues that 'rabid animals need to be put down, even if they happen to look human'. Besides the most obvious applications of this, the oddly humanoid Titans, this sentiment becomes more important the more we learn about the Titans and just why they look human in the first place. Then, it becomes even more important when humans that aren't even Titan Shifters become enemies. At Chapter 57, Jean speaks up, saying he probably wouldn't be able to kill a fellow human being, having pledged to fight for humanity. The next panel is Armin and Mikasa looking somewhat dumbfounded. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, the Power Trio, have been looking out for each other and their friends, but when it comes to mankind, they have always been more about ending the threats and gaining foot holds than defending the cause.
  • Also in a greater sense when Eren becomes the villain of his series. Eren could only literally gain the will of killing all the humans and those opposing him by shattering his bonds with the other two, albeit it's also his wish to protect them from being associated with him in one of his worst acts ever.
• Titans eating humans as an attempt to regain their human form could add another layer to their Our Zombies Are Different status, given the original myth of zombies "eating human brains" was out of a need to replace their missing one. Said revelation also explains why Titans don't eat other creatures.
  • Indeed. Not sure if this is ever directly stated, but it seems that that the sole reason why pure titans have the urge to eat humans is out of an instinctual desire to become a titan shifter, which is only possible by eating a shifter while they are in human form. So they mindlessly eat any human they can.
• There's a lot of discussion in the early part of the series about how the system is broken and places the most technically-skilled soldiers away from the front line where they won't get any experience or do anything useful; this is sadly dismissed as the result of corruption and stagnation. Or more likely it's entirely intentional, to provide a pool of expert operators for the more complex and probably much more difficult Anti-Human Gear, since the government is apparently far more interested in assassinating its own people than in fighting Titans. Building on this, the reason most of the military police are allowed to become so incompetent is because these are the candidates who aren't quite corrupt enough to be willing to act as the government's pet killers. Their incompetence makes them that much less of a potential spanner for the real military police.
• If you look closely, some of the less deformed Titans have facial features belonging to races that are not seen within the Walls. For example, the Titan that ate the soldier talking to Erwin during the Clash of the Titans arc is clearly Asian, and the Deviant Titan pulling on Historia and Nanaba's tree during the Female Titan arc is most likely Hispanic. Now that they are revealed to be transformed humans, it's possible that the majority of humanity wasn't eaten during the Titan-apocalypse... it was transformed.
  • Subverted. The vast majority of humanity is absolutely fine, and thriving beyond the Walls.
• "Ackerman" seems to be the odd man out as far as meaningful names in the series, but think about it. It means "farmer". As in "one who harvests". In other words: a reaper.
• In Levi's story A Choice With No Regrets, he had a little sister figure in Isabel who ended up killed by Titans, upon which he found her severed head in the aftermath. It might explain why he seems to take Petra's death the hardest when his second group is killed; she reminded him of her.
• In the above mentioned story, Levi eventually made a choice to leave his comrades behind which resulted in them getting killed. It probably explains why he's so understanding towards Eren when the latter blames himself for Levi's squad's death, having gone through a similar thought process himself.
• Why do the family's of the Levi Squad not even consider that they died? Because the Levi Squad have survived several scout missions without casualties, even while their comrades were dropping like flies around them. The fact that the Scouts are returning so soon means the mission went badly, but the families of the Levi Squad have no reason to think that THEIR loved ones died.
• Aside from the sequences in-story that foreshadow the identities of the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan, Isayama also instructed the animators to leave some pretty spoilerific hints in the second anime ending: Pay attention to the way the characters of the 104th Trainee Corps are grouped along the wall. Everyone in the second grouping of characters (with the exception of Krista, who has a different secret) are all Titan Shifters — what's more, their identities are revealed in the same order that the camera focuses on them onscreen. Eren is the only Titan Shifter not included in this grouping because he fights for humanity.
• Eren unconsciously knew that biting his hand triggers a Titan transformation because he has memories inside of him from Frieda Reiss, the one possessing the Coordinate ability before him and who also transformed by biting her hand. Related to this is why he found Krista's personality to be false. A deeply buried part of him knew full well what she was actually like and was sending vague memos of cognitive dissonance and/or disapproval every time he clapped eyes on her. Once she drops the act and the alias, suddenly, he can cope. Funny, that.
• While many have criticized the whole "political corruption" arc for taking focus away from the Titans, it actually fits in perfectly with the series' overarching theme: Humans Are the Real Monsters. The Titans and their origins prove this on a more literal level, while the Antipersonnel squad, the autocracy's willingness to abandon the people, and much later, the reveal of the enmity between Eldia and Marley and their tale becoming an example of Full-Circle Revolution, and of course, all the tragedies being started off by a petty and cruel warlord and pretty much every other despicable person or act committed in and out of this arc complete the allegory by proving it on a metaphorical level.
• Why is Rod Reiss's Titan form so ridiculously large? Kenny points out how impractical it is for what was supposed to be a "combat oriented" Titan. This is because it's a mutation — Titan fluid is meant to be injected into the bloodstream, not ingested. Notice that most of the mass is concentrated on Rod's Titan's stomach, where the fluid ended up.
• Why is Armin's Titan form so small, scrawny and emaciated? Because he was near death with serious injuries when he was transformed! When the Corps tested Eren's form, it turned out that Eren's abilities, as well as his Titan's size, diminished significantly when he's tiring, or transforming too many times subsequently. Also, Reiner states that a Shifter at minimal, has difficulty transforming when they're seriously injured, presumably due to the stress it already takes on the body. If Armin transforms when he's healthy, his Titan form probably will look differently.
• The Wall Cult's secret makes so much more sense with the recent revelations. It wasn't that the secret was more important for humanity's survival, but that keeping the secret was important for humans to have the illusion of being special. With the recent revelations, the survey corps goals are much more meaningless as, ultimately, they were just prisoners.
• The entire battle to seal Shiganshina is a Call-Back to the major points of the battle at Trost. At Trost, the Colossal Titan appears and kicks in the gate. Eren jets in and tries to kill it but fails. Armin has a near-death experience and is saved by Eren, who gets eaten instead. Eren Titanizes on the brink of death, and saves the day by sealing the broken gate. At Shiganshina, Eren Titanizes and seals Wall Maria. Armin sacrifices himself to give Eren an opening to jet in and capture Berthold. Armin has a near-death experience and recovers, cannibalizing Berthold as the new Colossal Titan. And the Colossal Titan never succeeded in kicking down the gate again.
• The Reveal in Chapter 88 that Titan Shifters are doomed to die 13 years after gaining their powers offers one explanation for why Grisha passed his power on to Eren. He may have been approaching his limit. It also offers another reason Grisha was weeping hysterically when he did it: not only was he forcing a tremendous responsibility on to his son, and he's painfully aware of how badly that can go considering what happened to his first son Zeke, he knew he was also ensuring that his other son will die young.
  • Also the reason he was more hysterical and terrified was because the older version of Eren just basically forced his hand to commit mass murder down to women and kids, has shown Grisha glimpses of the future where he wins, which is so terrifying he begged his estranged son to stop it. Grisha realized he's just passing on the tools for devastation to his innocent son.
• Ymir can recognize when Krista is being dishonest, so why was she grateful for Krista's "kindness"? Because it was real — Historia just didn't realize it because she was feeling melodramatic at the time she revealed Krista's real nature.
• Why is it that the Ackermans and Asians were persecuted in the Walls? They weren't Eldians, so they couldn't be brainwashed by the power specifically meant to brainwash Titans or other Eldians.
• The reason for Grisha not showing Eren what was in the basement before becomes obvious after his backstory is revealed. Him specifically trying to turn his other son, Zeke, into a soldier and a hero for Grisha's from the time that he was a small child is what led to his wife being turned into a mindless Titan and his son ending up a child soldier for the other side. Of course, he didn't try to do the same to Eren — he'd already seen it backfire horribly once before. Instead, he allowed Eren to form his own thoughts and opinions on life within the Walls before he planned to reveal the truth of their world to him.
• Grisha's anger at Eren for saving Mikasa's life and risking his own comes under new light when you realize that if Eren dies, Grisha is almost out of people to pass his mission on to, and almost out of time, as he has used up a large portion of his 13 years.
  • Later revealed in Chapter 121 that Grisha didn't originally intend for Eren to get the Attack Titan, which he only did because Eren told him to do so, in order to end the conflict for good. Grisha was just merely being a Papa Wolf as he almost lost his second son as well.
• During the third opening, there's a scene where images of various animals (both modern, prehistoric, even an ameba) with a red, glowing center (representing the heart, as earlier there's a scene of the Survey Core saluting, with their hearts glowing red), followed by the Beast Titan running alongside many different animals from whales to dinosaurs. At first this seems odd, until you remember that, in the manga, Eren Kruger said that Ymir, the First Titan, had apparently discovered the origin of all organic life when she gained her powers. Suddenly that scene makes a little more sense.
• The fact that many characters have Germanic sounding names makes a lot of sense if you consider that the story takes place in a region that is an Alternate Universe South Africa, which historically has had a lot of connections via colonization with Germanic people.
• At first the Coordinate may seem to be an Ass Pull, but with the revelations in recent chapters, it was actually foreshadowed when the Beast Titan (AKA Zeke) appeared. He was able to turn the population of a small village into Titans and was able to control them to a degree. The reason Zeke is able to do this is because of his royal blood, and the only way to use the Coordinate if the user has royal blood or touches someone a Titan who has royal blood. In short, Zeke has a downgraded version of the Coordinate.
• The first and last bloody moments in the Clash of the Titans arc was somebody commanding Titans to rip apart their enemies. Even more in depth when you find out the identity of the Beast Titan and realize that the two people who did this were brothers.
• In Chapter 94, it's revealed that Reiner was the least skilled of the Warrior candidates, only getting that far due to showing loyalty to Marley. In particular, at the start of Reiner's flashback it's shown that he struggled in the physical resistance test, and that he called out to Marcel to wait up. Reiner admits he was trying to imitate Marcel's personality in the previous chapter, so one can only imagine that this played a part in why he specifically tried to help Armin clear the resistance test: he saw himself in Armin's place, and acted in the way he wished Marcel had helped him.
• The fact that House Reiss went into hiding to rule from the shadows makes a lot of sense once it's revealed that due to the curse of Ymir, Titan Shifters only have 13 more years to live; it would arouse a lot of suspicion if a public monarch would succeed every 13 years without fail and the previous monarch disappeared without a trace. Couple this with the King's Will of wanting his subjects to literally forget about their past, it makes sense to keep the Foundation Titan's power as far from the public eye as possible.
• Why is Eren so determined to save Armin when Levi wants to give the serum to Erwin? Because Armin not only came up with all those plans that were mentioned, but was the person to not only inspire Eren's interest in the outside world, but another flashback to when they became friends heavily implies that Eren's refusal to run away from a fight came from Armin telling Eren that he didn't lose a fight because he didn't run away. Of course Eren wants to save Armin at any cost — he's been following Armin in one way or another this entire time.
• In Chapter 97, it doesn't make much sense at first when Reiner tried to commit suicide by blowing his brains out with a rifle after it was shown that his Healing Factor is powerful enough to regrow his entire head, brain included, during the battle at Shiganshina. Then you remember that regrowing his head resulted in several hours worth of memory loss as a side effect, and the only reason why he was able to retain any of his memories at all was by using his Titan brain as a back up while his human brain was healing. If Reiner wasn't able to kill himself physically as intended, he could at the very least kill himself mentally.
  • There's also the fact that both he and Bertholt flat out state that the whole "backup brain technique" is a literal last resort. Earlier, Reiner confirms that he could have died at the blades of Levi if he'd hesitated just a few seconds, hinting that its an ability that needs to be consciously activated. Given this, its likely that when Reiner attempted suicide, he'd deliberately shut it off so that he would die.
• Prior to the reseal Trost operation, Pixis tells the soldiers that Eren is an "experimental super soldier created via science" to dissuade them from killing him. Many, many chapters later, we find out that he was more or less correct, not only about Eren, but Titans in general.
• The War-Hammer Titan remained off the world stage for a century, and is never seen in person until Chapter 101, over one hundred chapters into the series.
• Something that came to me recently was why Titans were thought to never be active at night only the day. With the knowledge that the people in the Titans had lost their sense of self and were acting more on instinct then anything else the reason is that they were simply sleeping at night and just waking up with the sun.
• The blue flowers that sometimes show up resemble delphinium, which are said to have the ability to transcend the bounds of space and time. Delphi is also the name of an Oracle.
• Eren's urgency to reach Zeke makes sense: he had a short window between Gabi shooting him and him accessing the Paths, so he was hurrying along so that his carefully crafted plans don't fall apart in the last minute.
• Whether he was acting or not, there is some truth with what Eren said in Chapter 112 about hating Mikasa. Imagine having such a strong resolve only to be constantly coddled and reminded by Mikasa that he can’t survive without her. Earlier episodes show this a lot when they were just starting as scouts. Despite this, it shows that Eren still cares for Mikasa by setting her free by revealing the Ackerman secret, just like how he was set free by the truth. She would no longer feel indebted to Eren for saving her life nor would she always feel the urge to save him all the time.
  • Later completely subverted. It was revealed Eren was appreciative of her efforts for his sake, and that he lied to her regarding the Ackerman secret to protect her from following his plan of the Rumbling.
• Looking back at Willy Tybur's big speech, proclaiming that Eren is the enemy of peace actually gives away one massive plot twist for the final arc. Eren really did steal the Founding Titan away from the Reiss family, using the abilities of the Attack Titan. Isayama basically gave it away nearly 20 chapters before it was actually revealed.
  • Willy's speech also ends up perfectly describing Eren, despite never meeting him. He is the 'devil' to the Reiss family's 'God'. A huge part of the story's theme is how anyone can be considered good or evil, depending on the circumstances and the perception of the events. We can see how the Reiss family were insane, damaged, and irresponsible rulers, but will be considered as saviors to the outside world because of the Tyburs machinations, despite basically causing nearly every problem in the series. We can also see how Eren just wants to protect his loved ones, and actually tried every alternative beforehand, only going through with his master plan when everything else had failed, but the outside world had already labeled him a 'devil' before he even started moving against them.
• In Chapter 135, when the Founder Ymir used her powers to bring back every incarnation of the Nine Titans to fight off the alliance. There's a noticeable lack of any Founding or Attack Titans. Ymir probably wasn't certain she could control those types specifically because their entire respective gimmicks are absolute control and absolute resistance. Of course, there's still time for this to be jossed in the story.
• The Wall Titans all resemble shorter Colossus Titans. Ymir has shown that the Founding Titan can generate an infinite number of copies of past Titan Shifters. The Wall Titans are likely all clones based on past Colossus Titan inheritors, the most powerful of the Titans outside of the Founding Titan.
• It makes sense why the farmer would tell a pregnant Historia to be careful with her body. She was only days away from giving birth.
• Whenever Erwin is recalled, he's shown with the other dead members of the Survey Corps. This is most notable when Hange died, and they're all there to welcome Hange. In Chapter 137, it's shown that not only are Eldians all connected via the Paths, but they can also be called back from death through it. Erwin and the other members of the Survey Corps who have died are likely in a similar existence.
• Zeke's idea that the true purpose of life is to simply reproduce and his reasons being that life had taken new forms in order to multiply. It makes sense, then, that his Titan Shifter form is that of humanity's closest evolutionary counterpart, the primate.
• The Rumbling killed not only a large percentage of humanity, but also the environment and wildlife. However, this may have inadvertedly killed any chance of another "source of all living matter" from emerging and bringing Titans back into existence.
• Why do Titan Shifters need to injury themselves in order to transform? When Ymir accidentally found the Source of all living matter and transformed into a titan for the very first time, she was badly wounded. Titan Shifters are simply recreating the circumstances in order to transform as well.
• The twist that Eren was ultimately responsible for his own mother's death may have rubbed people the wrong way, but given how Eren despised the Titans for what they did to his mother, even blaming Bertholdt and Reiner for breaking down the walls in the first place and the fact that Eren knew about this for some time, it makes full sense why he became the Big Bad: he blames himself for her death as well and as a result, made himself the monster he despises.
• How the Rumbling works is a stark twist on the theme of being trapped in a birdcage. If the Rumbling was made to completion, then the last remnants of humanity would face their demise by being crushed by the birdcage on all sides. For Paradis, the walls never went away, they simply expanded. And for Eren, the boy who sought freedom, he is bringing the walls with him. In other words, Eren never truly achieved his dream of seeing the walls torn down.
• Why is the Attack Titan titled the way it is? Two possible reasons; one, because all the past wielders are inheritors of Eren's will, ensuring they will act out a purpose to set up future events, it's an attack which comes from a place no-one else can know about; the future. And two, the purpose of the Attack Titan was to initiate the Rumbling by claiming the Founding Titan for itself; in other words, it was setting up a massive attack on the rest of the world.
• The symbol on the Eldian armbands may seem arbitrary, but it bears a very strong resemblance to the flash of light from a lightning strike. In other words, a Titan's transformation. Also Fridge Horror for the Eldians constantly having to wear it like it's a hazard sign, as though they're little more than a living bomb that could go off at any moment.
• Marley appears to be a stand-in for Italy with its military, political and culinary culture, and flashbacks show they wore Roman-like armour. This makes them the perfect people to have stolen and reutilized the godlike Titan powers from Eldia for themselves, because the ancestors of Italy, real-life Romans, based their gods off the Greek ones - both in fiction and fact, the Romans stole deities. It even reflects how Marley lacked the same power of Eldia and why they needed it to conqueror the world, the same way the Romans lacked the means to create their own mythology to explain the world.

Fridge Horror

• When Wall Maria fell, it's stated that 10,000 people or more were devoured. A year later, the government forced 250,000 refugees and soldiers to take part in an operation to reclaim lost territory. All but 100 died. All that death, because of two 11-year old children and a deluded 12-year old. All three are exactly what one might find in real life — Child Soldiers forced to commit atrocities and left to figure out how to cope with what they've done once they're old enough to understand it.
  Reiner: We were just stupid kids that didn't understand anything.
• Episode 9 notes that the attack on Trost was so devastating because the Survey Corps were out on an assignment at the time, leaving the most experienced soldiers elsewhere when the proverbial shit hit the fan. The timing couldn't have been worse. The infiltrators knew this, and probably used it to their advantage to maximize the death toll. Likewise, the attack in year 845 began just hours after the Survey Corps had returned from a devastating mission outside, from the south gate.
• So, since Titans don't have digestive organs, that means they likely don't have stomach acid, either. Meaning that when a person is swallowed whole, the only way they'll die is either through dying from the heat or drowning in their comrades' blood. It's clearly what would have been Eren's fate had he not turned out a Shifter.
• Titan training:
  • Just how crazy was the Titan training that Annie went through as a child? She can remain in her Titan form for long stretches at a time, can run at high paces, take out dozens of soldiers regardless of how strategically they try to stop or kill her, maneuver herself through a horde of attack Titans without anyone noticing when her Titan body is eaten, transform a second time several minutes later while acting like she's not tired at all, focus her regenerating abilities on the part she should prioritize, crystallize her skin, etc. Compare that to Reiner and Berthold, who only had to kick or run through a Wall, and you're easily left with the impression of Annie having had much more severe training than them. Sure, her Titan strength partly stems from her human strength, but considering how masterfully she controls her Titan body, it still means she'd have had to spend a good lot of her childhood (when she was younger than 10) transforming into and learning to control it.
  • While it still doesn't say anything on her Titan training, Wall Sina, Goodbye does further explore the hellish training of which she went through as a child. Every day, her father would make her kick the padding on his legs, padded poles, or sandbags hanging from trees from before the sun rose till it set in the evening. At one point, he scolded her for trying to take a break to which she lashed out at him as a result. And, while it may be looking too deeply into things, his reprimanding that caused her to snap is very similar to the one we hear in her dream in Episode 23. It could be she woke up at that moment as she didn't want to recall her beating of him.
• Thanks to the revelations from Chapter 46, everything concerning Reiner. He's been completely insane the whole time.
• So, uh. The nape of the neck is considered erotic in Japanese culture. Have fun with that.
• Nakedness is also a sign of purity, especially when it's a kid. The Titans are transformed humans, trapped in a nightmare. They have no idea what they're really doing, and there's a good chance that, if Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt are any indication, most of them are kids.
• In Chapter 47, Ymir reveals that she spent 60 years wandering around as a regular (mindless) Titan. It was only five years ago that she was able to wake up and regain her human form. She describes those decades as being trapped in an "endless nightmare", but doesn't recall exactly what she did during that time... including having devoured Reiner and Bertolt's friend, Marcel. Bertolt states it was "the same" for them as well. If this is the norm for Titans, then that means all Titans were once human. And they all have the potential to wake up, and regain their human minds and forms. That means the only difference between Shifters like Eren and regular Titans is that they were able to escape their Lotus-Eater Machine. In the same chapter, Ymir says that "Eren doesn't remember, either", which means either a) She is assuming Eren was a Titan from outside the Walls as well. Or b) Eren killed his dad after he injected him due to a partial or full transformation and reverted back into human form without remembering anything. Possibly c) both. Keep in mind, we still don't know where he has been during Eren's training. Turns out it's option B.
• In Episode 3, Jean says that he is from Trost. So during the Battle of Trost, on top of everything else, he's watching the Titans destroy his hometown.
• The Wall Cult has a lot of power and influence, and early on, Eren and company complain about what a pain it is when it comes to doing anything to improve defenses on the Walls, and how much trouble it was just to get the rail-mounted cannons put up there. The Wall Cult knows about the Titans in the Walls. They're desperate to protect the integrity of the Walls themselves because, at all costs, they must not be allowed to awaken.
• Chapter 50 reveals the real reason why the other Titan Shifters went after Eren. He's a Coordinate, capable of controlling Titans. What about the Beast Titan? And if the abnormal Titans have seen this power before, who was the first?
  • Eventually shown the Titanization process takes place every 13 years, for the last 2 millennia. Irrespective of their alignment.
• Chapter 51 has several examples.
  • In-universe example when everyone realizes the true nature of the Titans. Hange and Erwin in particular look horrified as it sinks in that all this time they've been killing and experimenting on people.
  • When we see the picture of Connie's parents, it turns out that the Titan Sasha fought at her village was Connie's father.
  • Combined with what Ymir said about being a Titan for 60 years, and the true nature of the Titans. How many ways can one become a Titan, and what can turn a regular Titan into a Titan Shifter?
  • The houses in Connie's village were all destroyed from the inside. If the position of Connie's mother is any indication, this is because the villagers were turned into Titans while still indoors. Since the Beast Titan would need to heavily damage the houses to get at the people inside, this means that either the Beast Titan is a Shifter, or it doesn't need to touch people to transform them. In the latter case, this means it was able to turn an entire village into Titans at almost the same time (otherwise people would have used the horses to get away) through a purely mental action. Imagine if it pulled that trick in a fight against human soldiers.
  • It turns out that the Beast Titan requires it's victims to ingest it's spinal fluid to turn them into Titans. However a single droplet is all that's needed and it can be administered as steam (which is how Connie's village was affected. It does exactly that to a punch of soldiers, including high ranking officials of the survey corps like Dot Pixis through tainted wine, when Marley invades Paradis. If the Marley Soldier's monologues are any indication, Marley has been doing shit like this quite frequently using condemned Eldians.
• Word of God has said to base the story off his experiences as a victim of bullying. With that, some characters and plot points have a more scarier interpretation. For instance, the Special Unit that got killed by the Female Titan or even a Government Conspiracy regarding the Walls could represent how most situations with bullies have a surprising lack of involvement from adults or even situations where people see bullying as a good thing and often defend the bullying. Certain Titans seem to be modeled off stock bullies. The Colossal Titan reflects the Barbaric Bully, usually a big and tough person who might have a Dark and Troubled Past, the Female Titan being the Alpha Bitch, the Armored Titan as the Jerk Jock, and Rogue Titan being the Bully Hunter... or more scarier: He Who Fights Bullies. Even more when you consider the whole Coordinate plot point. So the early, seemingly insignificant scene of our main trio dealing with a group of bullies was in fact symbolic for the entire series.
  • After Eren gets kidnapped by Bertholdt and Reiner, Hannes reminisces of the times when Eren, Mikasa, and Armin used to fight bullies together, and how even if he always lost, Eren never gave up. Armin dryly notes that the size difference between schoolyard bullies and Titans is pretty big.
  • The people who fight the Titans getting punished by authorities for simply defending themselves? This is a parallel where in real life, the victim winds up getting punished alongside their bully if they ever fought back due to breaking school rules. In short, if the bully never considers his own punishment as such, he is effectively the non-lethal variant of a suicide bomber that keeps coming back, dragging down his victims with him by exploiting the school rules to his advantage. Even after they get punished, they just use the fact that they got snitched as motivation to continue bullying. This simple, yet effective exploitation of the rules was what allowed countless bullies in real life to play their teachers like a fiddle and get away with their acts.
• Isayama revealed the idea for Titans themselves came from an encounter he had with a drunk person. Basically, the Titans' concept of dominance and terror comes from bullies, while the lack of ability to communicate with them is inspired by intoxication.
• When Levi and Hange begin their interrogation of Sanes, he is completely uninjured, but Levi is already covered in blood. He was not the first captured MP they'd tortured.
• Eren's transformation into a Titan during the Battle of Trost did much more good than anyone realizes. The only reason the Armored Titan didn't destroy the inner gate like before, which would lead to the loss of Wall Rose, was because Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie held off the next stage of their attack to find out more about the Rogue Titan.
• Based on Ymir experiences, she became a Titan Shifter by eating another Titan Shifter, if we go by that point, we know why the Titans are eating people. They are eating people in the chance of eating a Titan Shifter and returning back to normal. They eat everyone as they have no clue who is a Shifter and vomit their stomach so they can continue looking for a Titan Shifter. That just makes all Titans even more sad.
• The antipersonnel 3D maneuvering gear is the perfect weapon to fight any human inside the Walls. Since firearms had no effect against the Titans, they're barely used and they haven't been improved in over a century. So, no one is prepared to counter or fight against the guns the Humanity Suppression task force uses. The Survey Corps are at an especially bad disadvantage because they're used to fighting giant opponents with swords and not dodging tiny projectiles fired at them by humans that they're fighting for and trying to protect. It was only because of Levi's sheer skill that he was able to dodge both of Captain Ackerman's shots while the rest of Hange's squad were taken out and killed via Boom Head Shot.
• There's also the fact that Captain, or Kenny, Ackerman was a serial killer who took out over a hundred MPs over the course of a few decades and is considered a legend in the Inner District. He was also the man who Levi lived with when he was younger. It's no wonder Levi says he's an aberrant human; whatever Kenny Ackerman taught him when they lived together must have really messed him up one way or another.
• Titans have no reproductive organs and yet they seem to be numberless. Now that we know that they are transformed humans, two horrifying possibilities can be considered: either the story of the rest of the human race being devoured is inaccurate and the Titans are the vanished humans. The second might be even worse — somewhere beyond the Walls, humans are still being actively hunted down and turned into Titans.
• Marco's death is a pretty big deal, but consider what would have happened to him if he hadn't been killed: he'd have ended up in the Military Police, lumped in with the heartless bastards in their ranks. Black market weapons dealers, widespread corruption and greed, and just all around terrible people. Marco would have been bullied into complying with his superiors... or worse, used against the Scouting Legion, or killed for standing up to them.
• On the Titans in the walls: the ancient Japanese practice of Hitobashira, or "human pillars," is human sacrifice to the gods by sealing human beings into the construction, in order to make the construction stronger and stable. If the gods were pleased, the construction would last longer. And those constructions are said to be haunted by the ghosts of those sealed within it...
• Grisha Yeager's Titan form looks eerily like the Beast Titan in size and shape, foreshadowing how the Beast Titan is his son, Zeke Yeager.
• If a Titan Shifter is only created after he/she was a mindless Titan eating another Shifter, then who did Reiner, Annie, and Bertolt eat? (Though the existence of serums capable of directly transforming a person into a Shifter might be a possibility.) The fridge horror gets dampened a smidgen thanks to Chapter 65. A Titan doesn't need to eat another Titan Shifter to become a Shifter themselves, they simply need to ingest their spinal fluid. It's likely that the serums that Reiner, Annie, and Bertolt were given was a mixture of the standard Titanization serum, and another Shifter's spinal fluid.
  • Kinda debunked with the reveal of the Reiss family and Marley government. The former appears to ritually sacrifice the Founding Titan's powers to the next person in their bloodline every 13 years when their life is almost up. The latter does the same thing as a military program, Titanizing the worthiest candidate and having them consume the previous holder.
  • Additionally, very few of the Titans have their powers "stacked" to a wide diversity. Injecting multiple Titan powers into a single person? That's the last thing you want to do if you want to control them. Just ask Eren.
• If all it takes for a Titan to become a Shifter is for it to ingest a Shifter's spinal fluid, that means the cure has been in human hands this entire time. We don't know how much fluid it would take, but essentially, it means that once somebody gained the necessary advancements to perform a successful lumbar puncture on a Titan Shifter and cram a dose of fluid down a Titan's throat, the problem could have been solved as quickly as the cure could be administered.
  • Painfully subverted. There are only Nine Titan Shifters, and possibly thousands of Pure Titans. No one can cure all the Pure Titans.
• The Titan serum Rod was carrying with him comes in a small organized kit with a little case for the syringe, bottle, and replacement needle. All in all, the thing looks industrially produced or at least manufactured for that specific purpose. Somewhere, somehow, Titan serum is being created, perhaps on an industrial scale.
• The hated Titans are actually human beings who likely have no clue of the chaos they themselves are creating. Even worse when you imagine that the smaller, 3-4 meter Titans may be mutated children. That's right — our heroes very well might all be baby killers.
  • While it's revealed that titan size is determined by how much serum is injected into their spines so the smaller titans are still likely to be adults, Eren Kruger reveals that Marley isn't merciful to children and will titanize them for as little as being outside an internment zone without their armbands. So yes, the Survey Corps probably killed at least a few children.
• Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt essentially spent several years learning and mastering combat skills to kill themselves. They literally grew up watching humanity gutting themselves to ensure their own comfort while being told over and over again that Titans are a conscious, sentient race of giants who do things like "claim territory". It's uncertain how much they know about all of it, but they definitely know enough to realize that Titans are no more culpable for eating people than a two year old is culpable for swallowing a toy. And because their paths diverge so drastically, due to assignment and mental health issues, each one of them was completely and utterly alone.
• Considering the way the Beast Titan's new Titan army manifested in a flash of light, it's possible that he either brought a sizable group of Shifters with him, or he transformed human captives into his pawns to fight the Survey Corps. Either option is horrifying.
• Uri Reiss comes off a humble, quiet Nice Guy, and he certainly spared Kenny's life when he could have quite easily killed him. Yet one must remember that the assassinations, tortures, and other cruelties carried out by the Central MP went on unabated during his reign. In fact, a younger Djel Sannes even mentions that he can do the things he's ordered to do because of his devotion to the King. In other words, Uri might have ordered Erwin's father's horrible death and the killing of who knows how many others.
• While Attack on Titan unambiguously takes place on Earth, something that's perplexed fans is the time period. The opening title of both the manga and anime is To you, 2000 years from now, although in some translations it's To you, 2000 years in the future. Most assume this means it takes place in the past, given the dark age appearance of the setting, though with steampunk elements like the 3D maneuvering gear. Now that we know the Reiss family has been intentionally stagnating technological development to ensure stability. They've been using the 1st Squad to secretly eliminate intellectuals and their inventions, such as better firearms and hot air balloons, as well as anyone who happens to learn too much. They even went as far as to erase humanity's memories of the outside world and actively suppress all information about it. The fact that it's addressed to as "To you" also has some very unsettling implications. A lot can happen in two thousand years, after all.
• Erwin knew full well that he would be among the dead in his attack against Zeke. He still went because he knew dying would piss Levi off enough to do his best work. Erwin knows exactly what happens when Levi's friends die and Erwin is Levi's last friend.
• The Thunder Spears have been criticized as being an overpowered invention due to how they shattered the Armored Titan's armor. But think about it: this is the newest, latest, most powerful invention the Survey Corps have... and it didn't work. What's more, now that Reiner knows about them, they may not ever be useful again — he and Annie have already shown that the same strategies just don't work twice. Since the Thunder Spears have to be embedded in a point and detonated to be of any use, their threat can be completely eliminated by the simple measure of a Shifter covering their nape with their hand. Even worse, this could be used against them, since that would allow the Shifter in question to aim the resulting explosion at the enemy. Talk about a double-edged sword.
• Many people are horrified enough that the mass murder that starts the series was committed by a 12-year-old and two 11-year-olds who had no idea what they were doing, even more so with the reveal of the type of brutal training they underwent beforehand. But remember that Titan powers don't work immaculately. Eren reveals on two occasions that if your mind isn't properly balanced when you shift, not only will you fail to generate a Titan, your regenerative power will cease functioning for a while. Eren actually mangles his hand to a horrific degree trying to force a Titan Shift during the Female Titan's second assault. Now, imagine that being forced on children younger than ten. Imagine a child being handed a knife and told that, if they cut themselves, a fifty-foot giant will come out. Imagine a training manner that means children had to mutilate themselves to become Titans, probably needing several attempts before they even got it right the first time. Children's psyche don't have the same determination and willingness to harm the self that teens and adults do. This is horrifying.
• One of the Titans appearing in Chapter 35 is clutching its swollen belly in a manner very much reminiscent of how a pregnant woman may hold their own. The reveal that all the Titans seen in the coming arc are the result of all the residents of a village within the Walls being turned into Titans, all of them carrying a resemblance to their human body, means this Titan was very likely a pregnant woman.
• According to the fable told to Grisha by his father, the ancient Eldians practiced ethnic cleansing because they deemed all other races inferior. While this in and of itself is absolutely terrifying, it doesn't explain why the Eldians would also interbreed with other races (after all, why sully their bloodline with that of inferior races?) until you remember that the Coordinate had the power to control human beings of the Eldian bloodline. The Ancient Eldians were deliberately breeding new soldiers... or rather, the Coordinate was breeding new soldiers. The Eldians likely had no more control over their actions as their victims.
  • When this fable is combined with knowledge of real world history, it has some interesting implications, bordering on Genius Bonus. Ymir lived so many generations before the time of the main story, she would logically be the ancestor of not only every Eldian, but every person of nearby nations, including Marley. Especially if Marleyans were forced to have half Eldian children. Whether they know it or not, Marleyans share the same ancestry they use as an excuse to persecute Eldians.
• In Chapter 87, Klaus explains why he fed Grisha's sister to dogs, namely that he sees all Eldians as filthy for being able to turn into Titans, and that they should be exterminated. He also goes on to talk about how he realizes the world's cruelty and that he can die at any time, so he wants to do as much as he can (which for him means taking entertainment from torture and killing Eldians). His entire philosophy and outlook is almost completely the same as Eren's, wanting to kill all Titans and understanding in full his own mortality. Even worse is that we're treated to seeing that all of this is being seen by Eren himself, so he's having to see a complete flip of his own ideals.
• Based on what has been revealed in the last few chapters, it can now be inferred that the Walls are a massive concentration camp, with the Titans as attack dogs.
• Most of the persecuted Eldian Race fleeing to the Island Paradis seems a lot like the plan the Nazi's had to send European Jews to Madagascar, especially with the shape of the continent on the map.
• The enemy Titan Shifters have just become all the more tragic with Chapter 88's reveal that Titan Shifter's die in 13 years after gaining their power. None of them have known anything but their mission, and that their time with the 104th Corps were all they had to feel normal in the time they may have!
  • Reiner's remark about being "short lived mass murderers" wasn't just a Karmic Nod! He likely knew that he, Bertolt, and Annie didn't have long to live, especially given how young they were when they first attacked the walled city at the beginning of the series!
  • Bertolt's stating that "somebody's got to do it," in regards to their mission. He may have been led to believe that Eren's power may have the capacity to save their lives. As to who told him so...*cough... Zeke...cough*
  • Annie's dullness about her mission, as well as her father begging her forgiveness are parallels to Grisha realizing that he’s passing his mission onto Eren.
  • Ymir is blunt and callous because she's; "damned if she does and if she doesn't."
  • Zeke in Chapter 77: “I want us to end it.” Is he becoming an Omnicidal Maniac because he knows his life is shortened?
• Currently, neither Eren nor Armin can look forward to a peaceful death at the end of their now shortened lives. Its stated that if a Titan Shifter's power isn't directly passed on via consumption by another Titan, then said power will manifest itself again in any random individual. The Survey Corps likely will not allow this to happen, so they will eventually have to feed Eren and Armin to another Titan in order to maintain control over their powers.
• The Beast Titan took Mike's gear before he killed him. That means the Marley know about the Survey Corps' only weapon and presumably have engineered ways of defending against it. Combine this with the fact that Zeke now knows exactly what to expect from Levi and the next Survey Corps attack could very easily stall. As of Season Four/Final Arc of the Serie this amounted to nothing, since Marley has little in way of fighting the Gear, aside from shooting at the people wearing it, and all of Zeke''s encounters with Levi ended in his defeat.
• The third ending of the anime has some rather disturbing visuals showing the origin of the Titans, resembling a gruesome story book... until you notice the film grain. This could well be a Marleyan propaganda film we're seeing.
• The Braun clan's extremist Boomerang Bigot views, and their Blind Obedience to Marley. While most Eldians parrot the propaganda out of necessity, they genuinely believe every word of it and have taught the children to aggressively report others. Both Reiner and Gabi have been raised to be obsessively loyal to their oppressors, with the family eager to see both of them sacrifice their lives to Marley. They seem oblivious to Reiner's suffering, and groom Gabi to follow in his footsteps... by eating him to inherit his powers. They demonstrate no hesitation to see their children suffer and die for Marley, because they've been promised "recognition" in exchange. To appease them, Reiner is forced to describe his former comrades as "Demons" and attempt to badmouth them. When he fails to do so convincingly, his family is visibly horrified that he described them as actual people.
• Among the Warrior candidates, Reiner had no exceptional skills or talent. He was the weakest and least capable of the bunch, with his only noteworthy trait being his Undying Loyalty to Marley. He was selected to inherit the Armored Titan over the stronger, more skilled Galliard. Why did they choose him? Because his blind devotion and Bertolt's Extreme Doormat personality meant the ones actually responsible for breaking down the Walls would be the easiest for them to control.
  • And then Marcel reveals in Chapter 95 that he specifically praised Reiner to their superiors because he hoped that in doing so his brother wouldn't be chosen; being a Titan Shifter would put him in the line of danger more than Marcel could bear.
• It's a good thing that Ymir did not manage to get Historia to the Warrior trio's homeland... Because Ymir would have been killed for the Jaws Titan power, anyways... and Historia most likely would have been turned into a breeding mare for Marley, if they ever found out about her royal heritage, or she would have just been made into a sex slave because of her beauty or tossed into the ghettos with the other Eldians to rot or await to be Titanized.
• No matter your feelings on Gabi... it's still horrifying to think that a little girl will most likely be killing her cousin Reiner VERY SOON... and could very well not just inherit his memories... but also his mental conditions.
• The guidebook reveals that Armin's parents were the couple that tried to escape the Walls in the hot air balloon, and were caught and killed by Sannes. Now, considering that we don't see any Military Police in Shiganshina in the flashbacks, and that the balloon isn't even off the ground when they're being attacked by them, it makes it very likely that, like with Erwin and his father's suspicions about the true history, someone caught on to what they were planning and turned them in.
• In Chapter 105, Pieck and Magath figure out that Zeke has betrayed them and is now siding with Paradis. This means that the surviving members of the Yeager family on the mainland are now in terrible danger. Now that the only Warrior of the family is gone, they are of no further use to Marley and are likely to be executed or turned into Titans for military experiments.
• In a twofold of brilliance and horror, why is it that Titan spinal fluid is all that it takes to transform someone, as opposed to something like blood? Cerebrospinal fluid contains large amounts of proteins and enzymes, as well as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) which is just what it sounds like: free-floating strands of DNA that exist outside of cells. It explains both how Subjects of Ymir become Pure Titans and how the power of Titan Shifters can be passed on, and it could also explain why only those of royal blood can use certain powers. The horror part? Larger amounts of cfDNA can be a sign of cancer. Now consider the Curse of Ymir: its symptoms include rapid physical aging, weakness, and bleeding. Rather than a Curse, it may be that Titan Shifters are simply inheriting a form of transmissible cancer.
• Hannes' death, while heart breaking, does offers both the audience and the character one brief moment of solace. When the Smiling Titan comes for Eren and Mikasa, Hannes rushes to defend them, to make up for his cowardice five years ago when he ran from the Titan, but in the end he is killed. This tells us that Hannes never had a chance against the Smiling Titan no matter how brave he was. In end, we now know, that he made the right choice all those years ago when he decided to run, as there really was no other way he could have saved Eren and Mikasa.
• The reveal of the true nature of the Attack Titan and its gimmick to glimpse past and future holders' memories and Eren being the one influencing previous holders to fight for freedom. As the Characters entry for Kruger states, it is implied he strung Grisha along from the moment Faye died. Couple this with Eren's aforementioned influence on previous holders, he may be responsible for Faye's death by leading Kruger (and Gross by proxy) to Grisha.
  • It doesn't end there. When Zeke communicated with Grisha through the Paths Grisha was frightened by Eren's plan and begged him to stop him. The problem is, it should be more than possible for Grisha to stop Eren from even inheriting the Founding Titan to begin with. All he had to do was not feed himself to Eren, and yet the timeline remained unchanged. Eren must have forced his own father to feed himself to Eren via mind control.
    • It's probably worse than that. Grisha stated before attacking the Reiss family, he already knows what's going to happen. A moment later, he confesses that he doesn't want to kill them... but then he does it anyway. If he really didn't want to kill them, couldn't he have insisted on not doing so? The answer lies in the Attack Titan's ability: it does not glimpse into the future, but into memories of the future. What they see has already happened, so they have no choice but to be a slave to fate. Eren is no different from Grisha in that regard. Those who inherit the Attack Titan may fight for freedom, but they give up their own free will in the process.
• If those who inherit the Attack Titan must continue moving forward even after death as is suggested, that would imply an entirely more horrifying fate than merely being eaten.
• If killing Eren and undoing the curse of the titans turns all Eldians back to normal, then what about the thousands of Wall Titans? Not only are they century-old refugees from a society long gone, but they would also be surrounded by the people they nearly crushed and killed.

Fridge Logic:

On the headscratchers page