I was talking to a friend about chapter 136 and through our discussion, it dawned on me. Armin being swallowed by the Pig Titan in 136, Zeke being saved by that mindless Titan in 115, and Ymir being eaten by her daughters in 122 are all connected.
Rationale
These three scenarios had one common result: a SoY not possessing the FT was able to access the PATH—the Coordinate’s—without possessing the FT.
This isn’t far-stretched when you consider how a non-royal SoY is able to utilize the FT simply by touching a royal Titan. In the same way, I believe a SoY can be brought to the Coordinate PATH if they’re consumed by a Titan of royal blood/one who was titanized via the spinal fluid of a royal/one created by a royal. Essentially, due to the nature of PATHS, SoY can transcend the bounds of royal blood through physical contact with a fellow SoY who does possess those genetic requirements.
This would explain how Armin and Zeke, who do not possess the FT, were able to “physically” access the Coordinate PATH, and why Ymir only arrived in it after her “death” (based on her surprised expression, she never saw PATHS prior to that moment).
To illustrate, here is a case by case breakdown of each scenario:
Chapter 114
A mindless Titan that was titanized by Zeke’s (a royal’s) spinal fluid and controlled by Zeke’s desire to fulfill his wish, placed Zeke in its stomach. In this way, Zeke was essentially “eaten”. Zeke was then transported to the PATHS dimension, where he met Ymir, despite not possessing the FT.
See NOTE under “Chapter 122”.
Chapter 122
Ymir’s case is special because she was the Founder and thus her successors didn’t inherit their powers by traditional means (that is, [a] transform into mindless Titan [b] eat shifter).
Instead, Ymir’s daughters (who possessed royal blood) ate her while in human form. She was then transported to the PATHS dimension despite not wielding the FT any longer.
Moreover, notice how her consciousness only fully transported to PATHS once her daughter ate her. She wakes up there to the scene of being consumed. Most importantly, Ymir was able to see everything from then on because, as Armin describes in 136, she was in the Coordinate PATH. In other words, she didn’t gain this ability until the moment she was consumed.
NOTE: In regards to how both Ymir and Zeke saw the PATHS dimension before getting consumed, I believe this was due to the combination of them making a wish after shedding their blood on those flowers (hence that specific transition sequence). As a result, their consciousness was transported there prior to the consumption step, but they didn’t gain complete awareness/end up in the Coordinate PATH “physically” until it (the physical contact requirement) was completed.
Chapter 136
A puppet Titan that was created by Ymir herself (a royal) swallowed Armin whole. Armin was then transported to the PATHS dimension despite not possessing the FT (I believe this is why the Pig Titan went after Armin in the first place).
Notice how Armin also only saw Ymir after making physical contact with the Pig Titan.
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
What’s interesting is that being in the Coordinate PATH (despite not possessing the FT) allows you to be omnipotent; you can see everything that’s happening around you via other SoY. This is why Armin is able to keep track of what everyone is doing. His consciousness is in the PATH that connects all SoY, and as we know, they all cross at the Coordinate.
Summary
Typically, only the FT wielder can access the PATHS dimension when they’re using the FT powers, as it is the metaphysical manifestation of the Coordinate. However, other SoY (regardless of their blood type) can end up there if they are consumed (without being killed) by:
[a] a royal (in Titan form or otherwise), as in Ymir’s case,
[b] a Titan created via a royal’s spinal fluid, as in Zeke’s and Armin’s case.
Maybe that shot of Eren being pierced by the WH is alluding to the fact that the FT, AT, and WH were the first three Titans inherited by Ymir’s daughters. So they’re the base of the PATHS tree.
It’s interesting that Ymir retained her memories of being a mindless Titan (while other shifters didn’t), and that she remembered PATHS.
Maybe because she was mindless for a lot longer than the rest? Cause most shifters don’t spend more than a minute in their mindless forms...
And perhaps she saw PATHS in the same way that predecessor saw them, the one Kruger was referencing. It could be that on rare occasions, some SoY's consciousness is transported there during their “rebirth” (while usually, they’re not aware of it). And that could be linked to the theme of wishes.
Also, it’s interesting to note that unlike Zeke, she didn’t see original!Ymir rebuilding her... Unless only royals/the FT can see her? But that doesn’t line up with current events. I guess it could have just been excluded on purpose for the sake of the chapter 115 reveal, or it could be that Ymir only remembered the aftermath.
Yooo FILMBuFF pointed out how in the ending song for season 4, the PATHS tree dissolves into a ball, falls into Falco’s grasp, and then there’s the shot of the bird flying away from Falco.
I think this could be foreshadowing the ending after all. That the PATHS dimension will be demolished and that Falco will play a role somehow (unless the hand was someone else’s). The bird could be symbolic of Eren, and the fact that it’s flying away could be alluding to (a) Eren's death (b) the power of the Titans dying along with him (hence the “flying away from Falco, who is a shifter” imagery).
This also makes sense when you consider the memory shard of Falco in chapter 130. If Eren isn’t connected to the birds, how would he have this memory from the bird’s point of view? Not to mention, the ending really focuses on drawing connection between the bird(s) and PATHS...
Hm I don’t think Ymir will be stuck in PATHS after this considering Eren said “you can choose to stay here forever or end it all”. And she chose the latter so it doesn’t make sense for her ending to involve being stuck in PATHS yet again.
I’m starting to believe that restoring the power of the Titans to the source is as simple as Ymir actually dying.
See, I don’t think she truly passed away when she was struck because of this part:
I think the flowers here symbolize the granting of a wish. We see the same thing happen with Zeke when he was on the verge of death due to the battered state of his body: he was transported to this dimension and “reborn” back in the real world after making a wish.
So I believe the flowers act as a way for the human soul to disconnect from the physical world and connect to the spiritual aspect of PATHS to catch a reprieve. Point is, your soul hasn’t actually passed on from this life when you’re transported to this place. You can still come back, as we saw in Zeke’s case.
Another reason why I think Ymir didn’t actually die is because her Titan powers would regenerate a wound like that. I think it would have been different if her spine was disconnected because that’s the only way we know shifters can actually die (and considering how the root manifested in her spine, it makes sense that the only way to kill the organism is by severing that part of the body). But considering the nature of her wound, it wasn’t anything detrimental to a shifter.
Moreover, if Ymir had actually died, I don’t think the powers would have been harnessed by anyone else. It’s because her spiritual counterpart ended up dissociating into this “safe haven” that the King was able to harness the powers in the first place. As horrible as it sounds, I think Ymir has lived on these past 2000 years, and she was technically alive when her daughters consumed her body. Her consciousness wasn’t there, but her body wasn’t allowed to decompose and return the power to its origin.
I also think that the “root” and therefore the power of the Titans is parasitic in nature, meaning it wants to preserve itself in whatever way possible. So when Ymir’s body was consumed, the genetic information making up that “root” manifested itself in her daughters. We know the powers can only be passed on to blood relatives, but her daughters couldn’t transform until they consumed her.
This leads me to believe that those genes aren’t activated until you actually consume the source. Like, as a descendant of Ymir, you have the prerequisites (the genes) to host those powers (because you’re connected to PATHS), but they’re only activated if you consume her spinal fluid (which again, ties in with the source manifesting in her spine and we know Eldians only turn into Titans once they’ve consumed or been injected with spinal fluid). So I think you can exist as a normal human if you’re a descendant of Ymir, but you can only harness the powers once you consume the source that’s contained within her spinal fluid.
See, I’ve always had a hard time imagining how Eren could destroy the powers if it’s part of the Eldian genetic code, but I think what I was missing is the fact that without Ymir in the PATHS dimension, there would be no one to build Titan bodies, etc. because she IS the source of the powers herself.
So I think if she actually dies in the real world and her soul can move on to the afterlife, it would simply cause the PATHS network to collapse. Like, it would still exist in that the genes would be present in their bodies, but no one can turn because there’s nothing there to fuel the network (the very source of it is gone). Thus, this scenario wouldn’t require any Eldians to die in order to destroy the powers, except her. Since she would be finally free of enslavement, I don’t view her having to die negatively in this case (especially not if her soul is reborn into Historia’s child).
Lastly, this is why I think the Titan we saw transforming at the end of the chapter is Ymir herself. She’s finally chosen to return to the real world. I believe she always had the choice to do so, but because she didn’t know anything else and serving the Fritz family was the last order she remembered, she continued helping the Eldians that demanded things from her (although she could have simply refused to build Titan bodies for them).
But now this is her being “reborn”, just like Zeke was. And since she’s no longer in PATHS to build Titans and stuff, I think this means that all the Titans that currently exist in the real world are on their own and the people who aren’t in Titan form can’t transform. Perhaps they can still heal, because I’m not sure whether Ymir was the one helping them regrow their bodies during fights or whether that’s an automatic function separate from her role.
All in all, I think what Ymir and Eren both want to do right now is to return the source to its origin by getting rid of all the Titans in the real world (which would mean the Wall Titans and the Titan forms of all the shifters need to go, hence why the Rumbling must occur). Then, once Ymir dies in the real world, no one should be able to use the powers anymore and she would be free, perhaps given another chance at a peaceful life by being reborn into the new world created by her and Eren (but I think that part will be left open for interpretation in that we won’t get a definite confirmation on whether the baby’s soul actually belongs to her).
