Anyone else absolutely mindfucked after reading chapter 86? Like, how is it that Isayama managed to confused us even more?? Read for a detailed review and analysis of chapter 86 of Shingeki no Kyojin.
So, Chapter 86 starts off with this statement:
We soon learn that Grisha, the author of the three books Levi, Mikasa, Eren, Armin, and Hanji was once part of an underground anti-government group that worked to restore the glory of his people. What people you ask? Backstory:
Grisha was born into the Yeager family, descendants of an ethnic group called the Eldians. At a tender young age, we learn the same time he does of his ethnic heritage from his father. The recount of his ethnic heritage is not a random conversation as it is spurred by the life changing tragedy that occurs during Grisha’s childhood (I’m sensing a pattern with Isayama…the moment we met Eren his mom got eaten and that changed Eren’s life forever).
Before understanding why, we learn that Grisha and his younger sister, Fay, must always wear armbands when they go outside the house. They live within an internment zone called Liberio and are not permitted to leave their area without an exit permit (reminds me of 1930s Germany with the Jewish ghettos).
See that blimp going beyond their town limits? Grisha and Fay, just two cute and curious children, are fascinated by the blimp, also known as a Zepplin. This gives us a clue that the time period could be anywhere between the late 19th century (1870s) to early 20th century (1930s). I’m thinking sometime around the 1920s and 1930s.
Obviously, leaving a secured area without a permit is bound to lead to trouble. Running after the blimp leads Grisha and Fay literally straight to the police. Entering the city without a permit results in two options: labor or punishment. Grisha begs them to overlook his sister’s involvement and chooses to take punishment for them both.
Kruger, the officer speaking in the left panel, viciously knees Grisha in the gut twice while the other officer volunteers the bring Fay back to the Liberio Internment Zone.
Afterwards, Kruger suggests Grisha stay and see the blimp. At first I didn’t realize, but now I’m thinking he knew what his partner was going to do and purposefully suggested for Grisha to stay and watch the Blimp park in the hanger. As suddenly as Fay came into the SnK world, she left it just as quickly and unexpectedly. The next page shows her mangled corpse laying by the river and we later learn that the other officer had dogs attack and murder poor Fay.
LIES YOU PIECE OF SHIT.
It is now that we are introduced to the fantastical tale of the Eldian people as the officer prompted Papa Yaeger to remind his child of the ills committed by his ancestors.
<<GET FUCKING READY BECAUSE THIS SHIT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.>>
Eldians, are descents of Ymir Fritz.
Are you confused at what you just read? Because I was so much that I re-read these next 3 pages over and over again for probably 10 minutes. Hours later and I’m still not sure what the fuck Isayama just hit us with because HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Ymir Fritz?? YMIR FRITZ? As in, Ymir, Ymir? Dancing titan, Ymir? Yumikuri, Ymir? What the actual fuck.
(That titan does resemble Ymir’s titan form in a way, doesn’t it? Without the horns of course).
Let’s also ask the less obvious question. If the story is 1,820 yrs prior, can we assume that the year of the flash back is supposed to be 1820? That wouldn’t exactly match up with the time that blimps became an option for air travel, historically. Which leads me to believe this number is made up.
This one panel is so crazy to me, that I need to write more about it before I move on. It doesn’t explicitly say in this chapter that the Ymir we know is the same Ymir Fritz that is supposedly the progenitor of all Eldians, BUT remember this?
Remember this small titan speaking to Ilse and bowing to her because he thought she was Ymir? It confirms that it’s probably the same Ymir that we know. I think this panel is the deal breaker in chapter 40 though:
So I think it’s safe to say that Ymir Fritz and this Ymir are the same person. So that implies…. Historia is a DIRECT descendant of Ymir, right? Because it was the Reiss family that is the true ruler (also what does this really mean, eh?).
But, how exactly did Ymir get a second chance at life? Remember, she was wandering outside the walls for 60 years. So mysterious.
Anyway, back to the story. So Ymir Fritz made a deal with the devil and suddenly had the power of titans. Ymir died and her soul split into 9 titans who founded Eldia. Eldia was an ancient great nation that destroyed Marley and came to “rule the continent.” They viewed all others as inferior, stole their lands and possessions, and began to commit ethnic cleansing by forcing non-Eldians to procreate with Eldian people. This ethnic cleansing lasted for 1700 years.
However, Marleyans eventually rose again the Eldians and overthrew their government and rule in a civil war. They also managed to subjugate 7 of the 9 titans and were victorious in the Great Titan War 80 years prior to the time of Grisha’s childhood. King Fritz was left only with the island “Paradis” and built three wall to flee too with his people. Some Eldians were abandoned and left behind to face the cruel rule of the Marleyans. Grisha’s father ends the story by saying the people of Marley are tolerant as Eldians are descendants of the devils. They should feel fortunate even be allowed to exist within their internment zones.
Naturally, Grisha is stunned and indignant. He can’t understand why his parents bow their heads and accept such an ugly and unfair fate. This anger stays with him and when he reaches 18 years old, he meets someone through his medical work in a clinic (I’m assuming) who lures him with information on the death of his sister to join the Eldia Restorationists.
(Ok, but am I the only one who is suspecting this person, whose name we don’t know, is related to either Annie or Bertolt? I could just be reaching here.)
The Eldia Restorationists are supplied both information and weapons solely from this informant they call “The Owl.” The Owl provided the group with historical texts of the Eldians.
So now we have a different version of the history of the Eldian people that Grisha seems to literally have pulled out of his asshole as he can’t read any of the text. At the point in time, I personally do not believe either.
OK BUT CAN WE PAUSE FOR A QUICK SECOND. Why aren’t the titans described in these stories mindless, flesh eating creatures? They seem to be competent and coexist with humans. How is that possible?
Then we have something more being sent from the Owl at this SAME meeting. Miss Dina Fritz now enters the picture, claiming to be a descendent of the royal family that refused to flee to Paradis with King Fritz. Her family has quietly been waiting for right time to strike back on the continent. (Also, this means she’s a distant relative of Historia?)
I think it’s obvious that Grisha just made up a history to believe in, but then suddenly this Dina girl comes in and reinforces all of his baseless beliefs? This is so fishy. She also reveals that King Fritz has the power of the founding titan that can control all other titans. Luckily someone paying attention in the crowd asked her why the King would flee if he had a power that invincible, and she responds simply that he, “refused to fight.”
We are also presented with new information about the titans’ role in the old Eldia nation. I want to focus on the panel in the middle as it is quite interesting. The image will immediately make you remember this:
So many questions flying around in my head from this panel. How does her account and the Titan found in the wall tie together? they tie together? What does she mean by “presenting of the founding titan?” So did he flee to the island because he lost the war or because he abandoned his duties? These stories are so different they’re not even talking about the same thing. Also why are those titans clothed (who even made clothing that large?) and do the humans on the ground seem to be worshipping them? Were they revered as gods? It reminds me of the Wall Cult.
Or is the second panel about the formation of the walls on Paradis?
She also says her family “part ways” with the royal family that fled, but Grisha’s father said that Eldians were abandoned. I also want to point out how there is a complete censorship of history by the government. 18 yr old Grisha and 15 yr old Eren both have very little knowledge about how their world came to be and are both fighting to break free from the walls placed around them.
The meeting ends with a summary of the groups goals:
they will overthrow the Marley government
they will right a false history
they will regain their pride as Eldians
and they will fight until the day Eldia returns
So here comes the killer. Grisha and Dina marry and have a son. A baby boy they name….Zeke.
There it is. Zeke Yaeger, the Beast Titan, is FUCKING GRISHA YAEGER’S SON. EREN’S HALF BROTHER. And now also a descendent of the Royal Family. I……I thought Zeke would be revealed as Grisha’s brother because of his age but no, Zeke’s his fucking son. So this begs even more questions:
1. How old is Grisha? 2. How long was he wandering outside the walls before he was found? 3. How did Grisha get his titan ability? How was he able to shift? Who did he eat?
While I was at first skeptical of Dina actually being from the Royal Family, it makes a lot of sense. Now Zeke can inherit the founding titan’s power as a member of the royal family, right? So they want to capture Eren so Zeke can eat him most likely.
Five years later, the word begins to change along with circumstances for the Eldia Restorationists. The Marley government now wants to gather warriors of Marley from the subjects of Ymir. They want to take Eldian children from age 5 to 7, train them, and select “chosen warriors” to inherit the power of seven titans currently under the control of the Marley government. Their freedom is promised in exchange for their service.
Why?:
There are also a couple things to acknowledge. This selection of warriors is most definitely where Reiner, Annie, and Bertolt (and Berik!) come into play. Remember these panels from chapter 42 and 46 respectively:
So I think we can confirm that BAR are warriors whom inherited the powers of the 7 titans along with Zeke. So thats 4/7. If Berik was supposed to be another one of the warriors with them, that’s 5/7 which means there are 2 more warriors allied with them. Remember in my posts how I’ve said I think BAR had other informants inside the walls because how else would they know the scouting legion was on a recon mission and attack at that time? Or maybe the Titan that recused Reiner from being killed by Levi is a fellow warrior? That would be 6/7.
So now we’re left to think, if BAR are Eldians, why would they reek such havoc and suffering on their own people?
But I digress once again. Back to the chapter, The Eldia Restorationists are thrown a loop at this new debacle. They receive a message from the Owl explaining that this new venture against the Eldians living in isolation on Paradis is not because of the King declaring Eldia will rule again, but actually due to the changing world environment.
Ah, this sounds like a story we’re familiar with once again. Exploiting land for resources; classic colonialism and imperialism.
Hold up. So this threat that is supposedly from King Fritz says that there are tens of millions of titans that sleep INSIDE the walls. I’m not sure how credible this statement is or how to interpret it:
Is this referring to the titans within walls of Paradis?
Or do they think Titans live within the walls with humans as they seemed to have in the past?
Also why do they all look the size of the colossal titans in this panel? Or maybe they’re the size of Annie and Reiner’s titans? If these are titans that could charge from within the walls, wouldn’t they have to be bigger than Annie, Reiner, and Zeke’s titans?
This is perceived as decent news at first for it seems as though the Restorationists and the government’s goals are aligning. But out of fear that their plans will just be overtaking by the government’s agenda and they will never see Eldia rise again, Grisha believes they can overcome this by making his son of the selected warriors.
Grisha educates his child son about the “pride of Eldia,” expecting his young son to grasp the nature of his fight and the purpose he serves. However, foolishly Grisha does not anticipate Zeke turning him and Dina into the government.
The chapter concludes, with a bit of a cliffhanger, leaving us anxious for the next installment (why is it a whole month?!) REMEMBER, I think this was only the first book of the three Grisha wrote because there’s no evidence that we went through all three books. We also need to learn what happened to Grisha after he was banished to Paradis. I think book 2 will be his time as a titan outside Wall Maria and book 3 may begin after he is already living within the walls with his memory returned.
So, some closing thoughts:
This “Owl” could have potentially been feeding the Restorationists with some bogus info. I wonder if the “Owl” is still around presently in the story.
Is it safe to assume that BAR + Zeke are on the side of the government? Are they carrying on the work of the Restorationists? Or do they have completely different reasons fueling their actions?
Remember this ? Their goal is to wipe out humans within the walls. This makes me believe that they are NOT carrying out the work of the Restorationists and are in fact on the side of the government, trying to eradicate their own people.
I don’t believe the fantasy versions of how titans came to exist, because there is plenty of evidence throughout the story to dispute that. Starting with the titan serum and the fact that Bertolt, Reiner, and Ymir were so knowledgeable about the physical extent of the titans, the different kinds of titans, etc. They knew you had to eat someone to be able to become a titan shifter. So who were the original shifters? I’m thinking its the 9 titans that “Split” from Ymir’s soul.
Can we assume that Grisha ate an Eldian warrior from Marley that had had one of the 7 titan abilities? It’s a shaky theory, but I’m not sure how else he was able to shift back into being a human..who else could he have eaten out there? He DID shift back much earlier than Ymir did since he met Carla and Shadis in their younger years. But we can’t base a timeline off BAR’s age only because we actually don’t know how old they really are. It is strange to me that Zeke is much older looking than them. Marley did say they would spend YEARS to chose which warriors would take on the powers of the 7 titans.
If Berick did have one of the abilities of the 7 titans, then why didn’t Ymir inherit any special powers? While her titan is fast, it’s still very small. She cannot harden her skin like Annie’s female titan, nor does she have armor.
How does the serum fit into all of this? Where did it come from and how many different types of serum are there? Who produces them? Were they all made at once or can the formula easily be recreated?
Anyway, I’m finally done for now. I’ll probably make another post with some more theories because there are another things I wanted to touch on that didn’t quite fit into this very long post.
midnight-in-town 