If you’ve been following the hit series Attack on titan then the word “attack titan” will sound quite familiar to you, especially after watching episode 79 of the final season “the memories of the future”.
As we all know, from the past season that the name of the titan that eren originally possessed passed down to him by his father is “attack titan”. In episode 79 of the series, Grisha Yaeger explains to his son Zeke the powers of attack titan and how it’s one of the only titans out of the 9 titans with the power to defy the commands of the founding titan. After episode 79, I think it’s very clear, that knowing the true extent of Eren’s powers will be a piece of crucial information in the series, and therefore to rectify all your doubts let’s take a closer look at what attack titan really is and what are its true powers.
Powers And Abilities
1. It Can Glimpse Into The Future
In the attack of the titan series, every human with the power of the titan is able to see the memories of their predecessor, that is the person who possessed the power of the titan before them. They can feel all the emotions felt by their predecessor which can have a profound and lasting impact on the current possessor. However, the attack titan has an edge over all the others as it can not only see the memories of its predecessors but also its successor.
The first clue that came to us was when in season 3 part 2 Eren Kruger passed down the attack titan to Grisha Yaegar and told him to protect Mikasa and Armin at all costs! Even though the two of them weren’t even born yet. This meant that Eren Kruger’s memories were directly linked to our protagonist Eren Yaegar’s memories, the future successor of the attack titan.
This means that even before Eren was born, he was always meant to inherit the titan from his father, and his destiny was already written in stone.
2. It Has The Power To Change The Past
One of the biggest revelations about the true powers of attack titan was revealed in episode 79 when we see that it was eren who forced his father to kill Rod Reiss’s entire family and that unknowingly he and his father’s timeline were connected and as it turns out he had pulled the strings of the founding titan falling into his hands before he even knew it!
This means that the power of attack titan, is far greater than anyone had ever imagined, because not only is the person possessing the attack titan able to see the past and the future but they also have the power to manipulate the past!
This means that Zeke taking eren down his memory lane only served to fuel Eren’s entire story and if we look at it bluntly, the events that have followed so far were all taking place according to eren’s plans.
It is assumed that when eren kissed Historia’s hand, he saw himself manipulating his father to kill the entire Reiss family, and he realized that in order to achieve his goals he will have to throw away his humanity and fight to take revenge for the people of the Paradis island at all costs.
3. The Brainwashing Of The Founding Titan Doesn’t Work On Attack Titan
One of the biggest powers of the finding titan, if fallen under the true blood is that they are able to eradicate everyone’s memories as they did with the people behind the wall. However, the founding titan cannot destroy the memories of the attack titan, because its possessors i.e. the successors and the predecessor’s memories and life are directly connected into one single coordinate, which means eradicating all the memories would be impossible.
That is why Frieda was killed by Grisha Yaeger in their fight because fighting was the only choice she had as brainwashing and memory influencing wouldn’t work on the possessor of the attack titan.
so the biggest question that comes into everybody’s mind is that- did eren know all along? Did he always know that things were going to turn out this way?
I think the simplest answer to this question is that eren was always supposed to inherit the attack titan from his father as evident by eren Kruger’s memories.
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However, everything began making sense to eren, when he kissed Historia’s hand, the hir of the royal family Although that moment is shown for an instant, I think what eren truly saw were memories of a lifetime.
What Did Eren See?
After coming in contact with historic eren saw that he in the future would somehow be connected to his father’s memories all thanks to Zeke and would set his own horrifying journey in motion and change the past to suit the present. That is eren in the future manipulates his father by going into the past to kill the royal family and the entire story of the attack on titan began from there.
However, did eren know everything all along? No! He only got a glimpse of the past and I think eren after coming in contact with Historia saw what he would have to do in the future to exact his revenge. Therefore, eren moving independently and throwing away everyone around him was a calculated plan, for him to come into contact with Zeke, travel to the location of Ymir to coordinate to access his father’s memories, and tell him to kill the Reiss family and set his entire story in motion.
This means that everything Zeke had done was according to Eren’s plans as revealed to him by their father Grisha Yaeger! This means that eren getting beheaded and betrayed by Zeke and everything that came along with that was all part of his plan!
How Was Eren Able To Change The Past?
As confusing as it may sound, the coordinate is described in the series where time is infinite and instant, that a person after reaching the coordinate can time travel to the past and the future. Therefore, eren and Zeke getting into a debate into what’s right and wrong was exactly what eren wanted.
When Zeke took eren and shows him the Reiss family’s reluctance to help the people of shiganshina, his rage travels downtime. That is with the help of the power of attack titan, the rage and anger of the successor changed Grisha Yaeger’s mind and he killed Reiss’ entire family because that is what eren in the future would want.
This means that the possessors of the attack titan have their lives connected in an intricate manner where the memories of the future can change the past to suit their present.
CONCLUSION
I think I’ve confused you guys long enough, so I’ll try to simplify it down by a notch, and the most simple explanation of episode 79 was.
Grisha Yaeger in the church of the royal family comes in contact with eren because Zeke took eren to the coordinate, and eren with the power of attack titan is able to grasp Grisha’s life in his hands and give him a direct command to kill the royal family.
Zeke realizes that eren has used the powers of the coordinate and attack titan to change the past, and is shocked and realizes that Eren’s true motive of coming to the coordinate and meeting him was this moment right here, to make his father kill the family and to take the power of the founding titan from them, and in the end grasp the power of Ymir.
However, Eren’s life and journey could only be defined as something which is written by fate. This means that no matter what eren did his life would have always led him on the path to revenge before he even knew it himself!