Do you think Grisha actually cared about Eren and Zeke? Did he love Dina or Carla more? I was also wondering how long after Dina turned into a titan, Grisha started develeping feelings for Carla and marrying her. And Do you think he still loved Dina after marrying Carla? I'm sorry for asking so many questions, I'm just really confused by the time line.
One thing is certain; young Grisha, who still resided in Marley, definitely didn’t care much for Zeke. He even says so himself.
But this is older Grisha speaking about his past self. He’s criticizing his actions, and speaks with regret. He’s very well aware of his fuck-up. And, looking back at some of his interactions with Eren, it seems pretty clear he learned his parenting lesson, at least in basic caring-for-your-child.
Grisha seemed concerned about Eren’s social activities. Since he only got along with Armin, and typically got in fights with the other local kids, Grisha seemed to hope spending some time with the girl living in a very peaceful environment could help his son.
Here we first see a relieved Grisha, upon learning Eren is in one piece. Then he gets quite mad at him for risking his life the way he did, for putting himself in danger. I think this scene has some more weight now, since Grisha blamed himself for wanting to put Zeke into danger. Now his 2nd son, whom he told to stay safe and away from the trouble, gets himself into danger.
Grisha is crying before injecting Eren. Sure, a lot of factors come into play here, like the death of Carla, or the knowledge that he’s about to kick the bucket. But still; Grisha is very well aware of the pain that lies ahead of Eren; and he is once again forcing his child on his own mission. Considering how regretful Grisha sounds in his book, he can’t be happy about doing this for the 2nd time.
So yes, I do think he cares about Eren, and, if he still had the chance, he would care for Zeke. I’m sure that, during his time in the walled world, he didn’t forget about him. But I’ll get to that later again.
Now onto Dina v Carla–Dawn of Jaegerwife.
Grisha met Carla after arriving in the walled world. Whilst we don’t know yet what plan he came up with together with the owl, it doesn’t seem to be something extremely urgent. He can pretty much live freely, and is in control of his actions. He meets Carla, a person without high social status or relevant bloodline (probably). They marry, and have a child. There is nothing political about this marriage. No external reason for Grisha to do that, no ulterior motives (as far as we know). So, I’d say this was truly based on love. Nothing else behind it.
Eren,Carla,Mikasa…please be safe!-EP2
I know this scene doesn’t appear in the manga, but I’m fairly certain it had Isayama supervision. It’s Grisha in the night he learns of the fall of wall maria and tries to eradicate the Reiss line. Tears stream down his face at the thought of his family being dead. It’s something he definitely has to consider, especially since they live in Shiganshina.
And here he learns about Carla’s death. Two reactions panels, and then he beings taking Eren to the forest to avenge her. There isn’t much of an immediate reaction, but I’d like to think that, similar to Mikasa in ch 7, he’s suppressing his emotions through actions. And as we saw, they take over once he’s inside the forest.
His relationship with Dina is…different. To him, she had royal blood leading to Eldia’s salvation; to her, he was the leader of the group that was going to free their people. In their context, they were both important people for their group, and it makes for these two to conceive the soldier that would lead them to victory. Grice even describes their marriage as “entrusting Dina” to Grisha, emphasizing the political aspect of their bind.
However, I’d say his immediate reaction to her demise is pretty legit. Their marriage lasted over 7 years and only ended because of their titanization. We also never get a single indicator that their marriage was unhappy, Isa doesn’t show us any of that. Dina’s words “I’ll find you” also lead me to believe that there definitely was an emotional connection between them as people. Maybe their marriage started off political, but over the course of time an emotional bond was definitely formed.
We don’t know how much time has passed between Dina’s transformation during 87, and Grisha’s transformation into a mindless titan (probably next chapter though). We also don’t know for how long Grisha wandered around Paradis before meeting Keith. Zeke’s age could be an indicator, but since that is currently unknown, we really can’t tell. One thing is certain though: Grisha arrived in the walled world in 830, twenty years before the current story. Since Eren is 15 in 850, he was presumably born in 835, 5 years after Grisha arrived. In those 5 years he met and married Carla, and she got pregnant. It seemed as if they married shortly after the plague that attacked Shiganshina, but I can’t recall that a specific date was ever given to that incident. Someone may correct me on that though. But ultimately, we can’t say for sure how much time has passed. The timeline from the Grisha files isn’t complete yet, so hopefully next chapter will clear some things up.
Did Grisha still love Dina after Carla? I don’t know. Unfortunately we don’t really have any insight into Grisha’s mind from that time. There is one detail I’d like to consider though. The photo of Grisha, Zeke and Dina is at the very beginning of his book. Practically on the opening page. Of course it serves the purpose of dramatic effect during the reveal back in ch 85; but I’d like to think that, whenever Grisha came down to work on his books or his plan or any other activity concerning the Eldia/Marley conflict, he looked at that picture. As a reminder of his mission in the walls, as a reminder for what is at stake, but also as a reminder of the family his own actions had cost him. He could’ve stored that pic somewhere deep inside the book, but he places it there, at the very beginning. I’m sure that’s the reason why. Somewhere deep down, he still cared for the people he lost.
Thank you for the ask (sorry this got so long :3)
