#snk 89

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Ackerman bedhead.  Who wore it better?   

Reblog for Levi.  Like for MIkasa.

[jaegerbroshoe]

Ymir’s letter to Historia hurts my heart.

[marmarparadoxa]

About the concept of TIME in Shingeki no Kyojin - and FREEDOM

Back when we learned about the Attack Titan ability to possess memories from the past and from the future, the concept of time in SNK has become increasingly puzzling. 

Initially, we have seen several times how Eren could see through the memories of the precedent Attack titan shifters, namely the memories of his father Grisha, so we knew about the possibility of seeing the past through the eyes of the past shifters.

Then, in chapter 89, we have a big new revelation. Eren Kruger saying those lines to Grisha: 

In this moment, the things started to become more complicated: not only titan shifters possess the memories of the precedent ones, they can also see the memories of the future shifters.

Then, in chapter 121, we have Eren and Zeke that, exploiting the power of the coordinate of paths, travel through Grisha’s memories, and they see as beholders those memories . 

After having seen a lot of different scenes from Eren’s infancy, they arrive at the moment in which Grisha, at the Reiss Chapel, is going to murder all the members of the Reiss family (except of course of Ros Reiss). Here, Grisha clearly states that the inheritors of the Attack Titan have the ability to see the future, or seeing into the memories of its future inheritors:

However, we see Grisha giving up and saying that he can’t take lives, that he is a doctor, and then giving up on killing the Reiss members. But how is it possible, when in reality Grisha had killed all of them? 

At this moment, we learn the truth: it was Eren, the present (or future) Eren, that, talking to Grisha, trying to convince him to do the massacre, was the real cause that had pushed Grisha to execute all of this, to kill the Reiss family and to steal the power of the Founding Titan:

Hence, we learn that when Grisha was about to kill the Reiss family, he couldn’t have done it, so that Eren (a future Eren) had to intervene, to convince his father to do all of that. It was due to this intervention from the future that Grisha, in the past, had done what he has done.

So, what we see here, in other words, is a future event causing a past event. Not only, the same future event (or the future scenario where Eren has arrived where it is, where he possess the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan) wouldn’t have been possible if this past would have not happened.

Normally, a time travel from future to past leads to an alteration of the future: when one influences the past, a new future builds up. 

However, this is not the case. This future (or present, depending on at what temporal point we posit ourselves), namely a future where an adult Eren talks to his father Grisha, in order to persuade him, is the cause of a past event. In other words, we see a future event determining the same past that would in turn lead to the first-mentioned future event.  

This goes against the usual understanding of causality. Normally, an event (A) causes a second event (B), so that we have A→B. Also, according to a linear causation model, A is always temporally preceding B, or, in other words, the cause always temporally precedes the consequence. 

Here, however, we have a different scenario. In this case, a future event comes to cause a past event, and we know that, without this intervention, the future itself would have been completely different. 

Theoretically speaking, what we can see in chapter 121 is called a Causal Loop. A Causal Loop is defined as a situation in which, thanks to retrocausality or a time travel (like the one that Eren is doing), an event or sequence of events is the cause of another event, which is in turn the cause of the first-mentioned events. 

Hence, in a situation like this, the arrow of causality doesn’t go only from past to future, but also from future to past, and it does it in such a way that it creates a closed circle of causality, or a causal loop. In this scenario, a time travel would not lead to alter the future, because it would invariably cause the events that would lead to it. Hence, logically speaking we have A →B →A. 

Given this state of affairs, one could picture time not as an line, an arrow that goes from past to present to future, with an uncertain path, but instead as a closed circle. From a certain position, one could look into past, present and future at the same time, so that it is possible to take a look of what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen.

Eren, thanks to power of the Attack Titan and of the Founding Titan, can afford to see the global picture, can see the entire circle. Thanks to the power of the paths, he can see the past, the present and the future, and the inevitability of all of this. 

In chapter 130, he even says that: 

“Even if all of this was set in stone from the start”. 

Indeed, in such a scenario, there is no possibility of FREEDOM. According to me, this concept of time and causality sets big issue for the possibility of freedom, because if everything has been determined from the start, how is it possible to change anything? If the future has already be determined, what kind of freedom remains?

The Attack Titan is the one that has always moved forward, seeking freedom. It has always fought for freedom. 

I wonder what kind of freedom, then, there could be in the end.

[plaxicry]

let's talk time travel again

Okay so this is actually my first time posting but I need to get some things out real quick. I don’t know if it’s been addressed already. At least, I’ve never heard of anything similar but please correct me if it’s already been done.

So, I’ve been rewatching SnK lately. And by the end of season 3, I came across this scene again, huh.

So, I don’t know if I’m dumb or else but, I quickly realised during this particular moment that Kruger isn’t talking to Grisha at all. He’s talking to Eren. And it is just so... obvious? 

That scene later made us understand one very important thing. Paths can go both ways: past and future. “Whose memories could they be?” It’s no memories. Kruger sees into the future, and he seemingly doesn’t even know it. He sees into the memory of someone who isn’t even born yet: Eren. 

“If you want to save them all, Mikasa, Armin, and the others... Carry out your mission to the end.”

Kruger can’t and will never know them. Grisha doesn’t know them, yet. And though he will, and surely will grow some affection towards these kids, they don’t have anything to do with his goals. It doesn’t make sense. But Eren will know them, and deeply care about them.

Could it be that Kruger had some knowledge of what could possibly happen? Therefore, did he try to warn Eren through Grisha? It could be. But with Zeke and Eren travelling through the paths and literally interacting with the past, it might run deeper than that.

While he was there, did Eren found a way to pass the message through Kruger? Who would then give it to Grisha? Who would ultimately give to a post-Shiganshina Eren?

By doing this, did Eren change the future already? A different Eren. Who goes beyond our current storyline. Who we might never even see. Who failed his mission somehow. Who led to the death of his friends and everyone else. Who must not repeat the same mistakes to succeed and save them. 

Is it not Kruger, but Eren talking to himself here? Another version of himself. The one that he could have been. 

Eren and Eren. 

An image like this, and all the parallels that have been made between Kruger and him, would make a lot more sense then.

“Carry out your mission to the end.” What mission is he talking about? Save Eldia? Destroy the world? Follow the euthanisation plan? Prevent it? Or, something else?

Beyond that, saving his friends comes to the forefront. If you want to save them, then... Eren has one great purpose. A worldly-matter purpose. But the most important thing remains to save the ones he loves. And it’s been made quite clear despite his recent actions.

If he ‘laughed’ after Sasha’s death, isn’t it because it’s all one big piece of irony? “If you can’t, we’re doomed to repeat it all again. The same history. The same mistakes. Again and again.” Is Eren doomed to see the ones he cares about dying again and again? First, Sasha, then everyone else? Has he already seen this? Just like Eldians have suffered from the same ‘maledictions’ over and over again?

If Eren is pushing his friends away, is it only to protect them? Because he has already seen the things that might happen if they fought alongside him? Is he just trying to prevent all of this?

But what if they all had a role just as important as his? If he’s the one who can save the world, could they be a part of this scheme too? 

I guess we’ll figure all of this out soon enough.

Update: basically, it’s all about time loops.

[gloomikasa]

And you smile and say, “How are you?” I say, “Just fine” I always forget to tell you, I love you I love you forever (and ever) (2/8)

[superjaegerbros]

“I opened my eyes again… and spread out before me was freedom.”

Ymir ✧ February 17th [chapter 89 panel redraw + animation]

[aot-snk-4238]

SNK 115 Thoughts

I have so many feelings right now. I'm so glad that Hange was the one to find Levi and save him from being finished off. And it looks like Eren and Pieck are about to have their first conversation, which I am very interesting in seeing. As for the part with Zeke...I am still trying to wrap my head around what happened. I re-read the chapter a few times, took some time to think, and read through what others had to say about it. I am definitely not quite as taken aback as I was initially, but I still have a few lingering questions that are bugging me and they all relate to Zeke's situation, so here goes:

1. Who is this girl and why is she here?

So it looks like most people believe this little girl to be Ymir Fritz. If you ask me, I'd say that's probably true, and if it is, then...why is she a little girl? Based off of what we know so far, Ymir obtained the power of the titans around 2,000 years ago and died 13 years later, but before that, she supposedly had three daughters: Maria, Rose, and Sina. Obviously she couldn't have been a child anymore when she had them, so if this is really her, why is she little again? And why does she linger here in this mysterious 'paths' dimension? Are we looking into the past somehow? Maybe this is the place where she originally got her powers, but that only leads to more questions that I can't even put into words right now...

2. Do all new titan shifters wake up in this dimension first, or has it only been Ymir and Zeke? If so, why?

I find it so fascinating how Ymir and Zeke both ended up in this place, but it was under completely different circumstances. In this chapter, Zeke, who is already a titan shifter, actually died, but then a titan showed up out of nowhere and put him in its freaking stomach, which confused tf out of me when I first saw it. Later on, Zeke recounts waking up in that place and watching a mysterious little girl he had never seen before reconstruct his body so he would be brought back to life.

Ymir's experience that she recalls back in chapter 89, however, was mostly quite different. For 60 years, Ymir wandered the earth as a mindless titan, stuck in what felt like an endless nightmare. Eventually, out of pure luck, she ate Marcel and was able to become human again. But unlike Zeke, she wasn't dying and she didn't get shoved into another titan's stomach. She simply ate a shifter, then woke up in that place, naked and alone.

Notice how the little girl isn't there this time. Ymir is alone in this place, and while Zeke saw it as "paths," Ymir saw it as freedom. Zeke and Ymir are the only two people that we know of who have been here, so what about everyone else? This actually isn't the first time we've seen somebody wake up to something strange after being "reborn." Remember chapter 85?

We are definitely not looking at a colorful night sky this time. This is much more scary and unsettling. Is this some sort of 'path' too? And why is that thing crying? I'm still stumped on the meaning of those panels and what they mean for Armin. Hell, I'm just stumped on everything right now and getting a headache just thinking about it. I love it. You know you're reading a good story when it leaves you so deep in thought you forget about everything else. I really hope we get some answers soon, though. Monthly releases are hell...

[insnkerator]

LMAO is that you, Eren, whispering to yourself through PATHS?

Attack titan owner mission objectives

(as stated in Chapters 67 and 89)

Steal the Founding Titan

Learn to control this power

Love someone inside the walls

Save Armin, Mikasa, and the others

What an optimistic-sounding list!

How we doin’ with that so far, Eren bby?

destroy... destroy... destroy...