Floch is a traitorous piece of garage, who has been working with/for Zeke for at least several months. And represents the voice of Extremism and Nationalism in the story. That he is becoming more and more influential is very concerning.
And god just……the entire part with Gabi and Kaya confronting each other. Their entire argument strikes me as very much leaning into Religious elements. Gabi’s world view sounds a lot like the concept of Original Sin, and the idea that humanity deserves to suffer to atone for their sins. Even so, we’re starting to see her cracking under the pressure. Just like Reiner before her, she’s seeing how wrong everything she was taught actually is……when that has literally been the only thing keeping them going since the beginning.
I loved Kaya essentially echoing back what Gabi had said several chapters earlier. Gabi was angry because she didn’t understand why Liberio was being destroyed, and why her loved ones were being killed. She didn’t believe they had done anything to deserve it, because she’d never seen it with her own eyes.
Now she has. Now, she’s been taken to the ruins of a village destroyed by Titans and heard a survivor’s story. Kaya demands to know why her mother, who never hurt anyone, deserved to die such a horrible death.
We see the classic argument being presented again. Does the current generation hold responsibility for the actions of their ancestors? Should people living today be punished for something that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago?
Gabi has only been able to understand her world through the framework of Atonement. Just like people have looked to Sin and divine punishment as a way to explain their suffering, Gabi needs to believe that her suffering and the suffering of her people has a PURPOSE. She needs to believe that they DESERVE what is happening, and that because it is Atonement, it will eventually end. Someday, someday they will be free and not have to suffer anymore.
But we know that isn’t true. We know that the Warriors have been raised on lies, and fed a false hope. Marley is simply exploiting them, and will simply kill them when they are no longer useful.
Kaya challenges Gabi’s world view in a way even Falco could not.
She rejects the idea that ancient crimes of their ancestors justifies her mother being eaten alive. She rejects the idea that she deserves to suffer, for what someone else may have done long ago. She rejects the idea that suffering is righteous, and atonement is necessary for things that happened long before your birth.
She challenges Gabi to see her suffering as what it actually is – Cruelty and Hatred. Just people doing awful things to each other, when they can choose to do better.
As someone in the camp of those who do not trust Zeke, Eren’s cooperation with him has long been a point of concern. Chapter 108 eased some of that, but opened up a totally new and disturbing possibility.
My end game theory has been that when Zeke and Eren touch, Zeke will be able to control the power by virtue of being a royal. In chapter 108, Armin theorized the opposite. He stated that Eren’s purpose is the one that will be dominant. This would mean that Zeke has no real power in the equation. Eren can safely team up with Zeke and spare Historia from becoming a titan.
I can’t imagine Zeke is ok with that. He’s been planning this moment for years. He wouldn’t leave something so important to chance. Zeke is playing nice, but if his ultimate goal is contrary to Eren’s, he needs a way to force Eren to comply.
Chapter 108 may have shown us how he’s going to accomplish this.
Paradis has been foolishly accepting food and drink from an enemy combatant’s cook for three years. If that food or wine has been tainted with spinal fluid, it means Zeke has been secretly building a titan army for years. The 104th has mentioned the delicious food and drink too many times for me not to be suspicious. It’s interesting too that Yelena is the one who set Nicolo up to be their chef.
While I don’t trust Zeke, I still believe Eren’s entire reasoning right now involves protecting his friends. It’s become crazy and misguided, but they are still at the heart of his thinking. Threatening to titanize them would be a powerful bargaining chip. The most powerful in fact.
Call me crazy but the wine bottle is the most exciting thing to happen in the story in a long time. I feel like the pieces are falling into place for a final battle between Zeke and Eren – one that Eren can’t completely win.
If he sides with Zeke, he protects his friends but humanity may be doomed. If he takes out Zeke, Historia will need to be titanized to accept Zeke’s power. People are going to die and Eren will have only himself to blame for bringing Zeke onto the island.
It’s terrible. It’s tragic. It’s everything I love and hate about this story.
working with the goddess, the legend, @dreamxxdream, who drew the lineart for this piece (while i did the coloring) has been absolutely amazing! even though we had a ‘deadline’ all i felt all throughout this collab was how fun it is to do it!! ♡ ♡ ♡ (and of course immense appreciation of nadine’s zeke, hot damn)
check out the other piece of the collab where she colored my drawing here!!
I’ve seen some criticism of the Survey Corps for not allowing Eren any contact with Zeke. Even now, rather than reuniting the brothers as promised, they are secluding Zeke in the woods. It seems unfair to some. I’ve seen others point to it as a possible reason for Eren’s rage.
The thing to remember is that Eren and Zeke don’t need to be in their titan forms to make Founding Titan Magic. Eren first activated the power while human by fist bumping mindless titan Dina. Even now in his human form he unlocks memories by holding hands with Royal Human Historia.
When Eren touches Historia, the power transfer goes both ways. She’s affected as well. It unlocks her memories. So it’s possible that the moment Zeke and Eren make physical contact on Paradis, Zeke will have similar abilities awakened within him. He can already create, command and control titans. He may only need a tiny power boost to increase those abilities. Eren’s touch could provide that. It’s possible that Zeke and Eren might need to simply shake hands or brush shoulders to set off the rumbling if one of them desires it. So I don’t blame the Survey Corps for their caution.
I have to be honest. Since the moment we realized Zeke didn’t tell Marley that he had royal blood, I knew he was gonna betray them, that he would have become a key player in the story and that he had a plan.
Sure, common sense teaches you not to trust someone who has betrayed multiple groups of people. Zeke is such a character. I have to admit, it’s not gonna be exactly a surprise if he betrays the Survey Corps. And there’s a high probability it’s going to happen, he’s probably using them, but I don’t think his ultimate goal is something bad or that should be feared (although it may hurt Paradis again).
Maybe I want to believe in him because he’s a mystery, maybe it’s because I want to be surprised and if he were to be revealed as the ultimate villain of the story it would be expected and a boring development…Almost nobody is believing in him, both in the fandom and in the story. But I still think he is the key, alongside Eren, to the resolution of the story.
As for my thoughts on chapter 107’s plans and Zeke in general, I put them under the cut.
As sad as this development makes me for her (and I totally get why people don’t like it), I do believe it makes narrative sense for Historia’s arc and fits with the cruel aspect of SnK’s world (really not much different than our own). Also, I do not believe this dooms Historia to tragedy.
It’s no secret that the one piece of Isayama’s writing that I’ve thus far hated completely is Ymir’s death. It didn’t seem to fit with what we knew about Ymir, and left a lot unresolved between her and Historia, especially in terms of how they affected each other. Her death was confirmed way too late to have any real thematic impact since the characters were already used to living without her.
But with 107, we see that Historia is not cured and has in fact regressed. Historia is still trapped in the same dangerous cycle that killed Ymir: sacrificing herself and her own desires to be a figurehead for her people, and allowing her children to suffer the same fate. This flaw killed Ymir twice (firstly when she was turned into a Titan, secondly when she was too kind to leave Bertolt and Reiner), and Historia is currently heading down a path that will kill her and kill her children.
The irony of the situation is palpable: Historia is deliberately having a child to sacrifice them for a cause. That’s what Grisha did with Zeke.
It also carries parallels to what happened to Ymir–hopeless people used a street child to fulfill their own desires, to give themselves hope.
Eren just sacrificed children for a cause too (to somehow break with this plan and thereby protect Historia presumably), narratively showing Historia the horrors of just what she is planning to do.
This development gives Ymir’s death resonance, rather than her death being just a letter way too late in the game with no real impact. Because of her own and also directly because of Ymir’s martyr complex driven decisions, Historia has sunk into a similar place: allowing herself to be a figurehead, endangering her life and her child’s for the sake of a cause.
No, Historia, that is not all. Because someone still has Ymir’s memories:
I think we’ve all thought Ymir’s memories would be relevant at some point, but this development is giving me hope that it’s going to be not just a sweet heartwarming moment, but instead a powerful one. If Porco does share certain memories of Ymir’s with Historia, including how she actually felt about her and how she felt about her own decisions (this is surely not what Ymir would have wanted for Historia), I have hope that might jumpstart Historia’s development in a positive direction again.
am i the only one who doesn’t trust Kiyomi’s happiness about Mikasa, like, she’s the head of the Azumabito clan, why would she want Mikasa, the heir to the shogun bloodline, back???? especially after the whole speech about the iceburst stone resources.
i trust her as much as i trust Zeke’s claim that he sold his parents to make sure Grisha’s plan to restore Eldia would work, which is to say not at all????
Hi Anon! Yeah, he certainly is and that’s why I do not trust him at all, like Yelena.
Funnily enough that’s where Sensei might get me, because I so am never trusting Zeke that Sensei could eventually make a good guy out of him and I would refuse to believe it till the series ends. It’s just that I can’t forget this tho’…
so no way do I believe his claim that he sold his parents out to eventually make Grisha’s plan work.
Otherwise I just don’t know what to make of Eren at the moment. Is he buying anything coming from his brother, is he following a plan of his own because the alternatives offered by Zeke’s side or Kiyomi do not provide what he wants for the people he wants to protect? I don’t know, he’s a tough cookie to see through.
Thanks for passing by Anon, glad to know I’m not alone in this! 🙂
Hey Anon! And nah, no way! I think Historia’s husband or whatever is that dude from the cliffhanger.
I mean, reading the typeset version, Eren was against Historia being forced to recreate the system that the Reiss family had put in place before Grisha killed them all in the first place. That’s why he left and followed a plan of his own because Kiyomi’s and Zeke’s ideas put Historia in a bad position.
So if he was against it, why would he make a child with her? So n o p e, Historia’s pregnancy isn’t related to Eren.
Listen Anon, I know it was a long time ago, but Eren and Historia once had a deep talk…
…and I think Eren understands where Historia is coming from. That’s why, since she already has to be the Queen despite not wanting to initially, he doesn’t want her to be burdened with more.
That’s also why he didn’t mention the use of the royal bloodline to the progenitor titan after he finally accessed his father’s memories and why he was against her being used by Kiyomi and Zeke in the newest chapter.
In general what Eren seeks for him and for the others is freedom. I think that explains enough why he’s mad about Historia being forced into the current circumstancesn even if it was also her choice
eventually. So no, Eren is not Historia’s baby’s daddy (besides I think Mikasa would have taken it rather badly if that were the case, considering past examples).
I hope it answers your question, have a nice day Anon!
In my opinion, absolutely. The revelations of this arc have demonstrated that he continues to play everyone around him, and has engaged in all manner of contradictory actions.
Here’s the basic timeline of events, as influenced by Zeke.
Zeke betrays his parents and the resistance, turning them over to the authorities.
He becomes a Candidate, and eventually the leader of the Warriors.
Zeke comes to Paradis Island, turning the villagers from Connie’s home into Titans as a “test”.
Reiner and Bertolt rejoin Zeke, and fight with him over a mission to save Annie. Zeke forces them to submit to his command.
Zeke arranges the ambush at Wall Maria, convincing Reiner and Bertolt (in PARTICULAR) that it is necessary for them to “end it all”. Bertolt takes his words to heart, resolving to kill his friends as an act of mercy.
Zeke is defeated, and abandons Bertolt to die.
A year later, Yelena arrives on Paradis Island and makes contact with the Survey Corps on Zeke’s orders. She communicates his demands to their government, offering an alliance and a solution to their problems.
The war with the Mid-East Alliance Ends. Zeke persuades a hesitant top brass to resume the Paradis Operation, arguing that obtaining the Founding Titan will buy them time to modernize their military for a post-Titan world.
Zeke argues for the involvement of the Tybur family and the War Hammer Titan. He suggests their influence is necessary to gain favor with the international community, and “control the narrative” to scapegoat Paradis Island. In doing so, Marley can reassert it’s authority in the world.
Zeke begins planting doubts in the other Warriors about their peoples’ fate.
Eren operates alone in Marley, with Zeke aware of his presence in the city.
Festival begins. Yelena lures Pieck and Galliard into a trap, to remove them from the upcoming battle. Falco comes to fetch Reiner, and Zeke encourages him to go to what turns out to be a meeting with Eren.
Zeke fights the Survey Corps, having Levi seemingly kill him.
Zeke is taken by the Survey Corps, reassuring them that now he and Eren can use the Founding Titan’s power to save Eldia.
So what we have is a consistent pattern of Zeke playing both sides, throughout his life. He has consistently betrayed and manipulated people, switching alliances with no clear indication of his true intentions.
He has alternately offered a branch of peace, and intentionally stirred up conflict. He presents himself as opposed to war, and pitying those that have to be slaughtered “for the greater good”. But he also fans the flames, when his superiors have decided there’s no further reason to attack Paradis.
During the last several months, the fandom has argued over the necessity of Eren’s rampage. A common argument is that the world was ALREADY declaring war, so he simply struck first to cripple their leadership.
But without Zeke’s manipulations, there would have been no Festival and no Declaration of War. There would have been no international community involved. Marley would have continued to face the reality of being outgunned by the rest of the world, and facing the consequences of their warmongering and imperialism.
But Zeke stepped forward, and fanned the flames of war. He pushed for a new conflict, and pushed for the stakes to be raised.
He is the reason that the world is about to go to war with Paradis.
But he presents himself as an ally to Paradis, promising a solution. Promising freedom. And repeatedly stating his only concern is his brother.
Now, Eren has painted a target on his own back and the island. He has murdered international figures, in front of the entire world. He has reawakened the image of the Eldian Devils. And he has isolated himself from his comrades in the process, destroying their trust.
He has increasingly moved towards trusting Zeke, instead of Armin and the others.
I cannot help but think this is all according to plan.
I agree completely. Zeke is a master manipulator.
I agree too. My thoughts actually change on a lot on this subject but
lately I definitely think Zeke wants to get the Progenitor titan from Eren because he knows something that has to do with possibly undoing “Ymir’s curse”, thus allowing him to live for more than just this final year.
Seriously the “anti Marley faction”? When his parents were basically after the same thing and he sold them both and still thought during the Wall Maria arc that “he wasn’t like his father”? Nah nah, the guy is interested in backstabbing everyone so that he can save his skin while the whole world gangs up on Eldians, thus definitely destroying what was his father’s goal long ago (= making Eldia strong again).
Double revenge: against Marley and against Eldia to still get back to his parents.
Besides, it gives Levi a chance to follow Erwin’s last order if they’re not allied with Zeke anymore.
And finally, from a narrative point of view, I know the fandom is not fond of Grisha in general (even though he never blamed Zeke but himself for everything that happened), but I do believe he tried not to make with Eren the same mistakes he did with Zeke, so an Eren vs Zeke for the last arc would sound logical.
I don’t know what I expected from this chapter, but it seems that I don’t check in for a few weeks and come back to like
Like, excuse me, the new Eldian WHAT? Did Floch literally just talk about a new Eldian empire while his comrades rejoiced around him?
What on earth is happening on Paradis that this is an acceptable statement to make?? The old SC crew seem to be the only ones not joining in the celebrations, so it seems that someone still has their heads screwed on straight, but like. This is what you get from Grisha’s journal? You read the thing, you read about how the Eldia restorationists were consumed by their passion for the cause to the point of sacrificing kids to it, you read about the world who believes the worst of you, and your thought is–great, what we need the most is to get that old empire back?
… Maybe there really is no hope for humanity. Maybe they deserve to perish, all of them, if these are the circles they’re walking in.
Except that’s exactly the way Zeke and Eren seem to be thinking, don’t they? I mean, not quite, but like. After everything that’s happened, these words of Zeke’s seemed to me to ring quite hollow:
I don’t for a moment believe that Zeke dreams of liberating Eldia, new empire or otherwise. Maybe I’m wrong! But I really find it hard to swallow that a man whose life got essentially derailed and ruined by the zeal of Eldian restorationists, a man who betrayed his own parents for it as a child, a man who, not too long ago, gave every appearance of gleefully murdering his fellow Eldians inside the walls gives two damns about Eldians or their future.
No, what I keep thinking back to is the last time we looked through Zeke’s POV and the thoughts he was having then.
And the goal he stated back then was:
And it could be that I’m completely wrong, but it seems to me that what Zeke mostly wants is for all of this to end. He attacks Eldia with abandon; he schemes against Marley; he doesn’t seem to care who burns, as long as someone does. Because they’ve all failed him, one way or another, and he has a year at most left to live, and not much left to live for. Setting the world on fire might seem like a fair price for everything humans have done to each other in Zeke’s experience.
He does, admittedly, seem to care for his brother, insofar as I believed the sincerity of his promise to ‘come back for’ and ‘rescue’ Eren. But I’m not convinced, at this point, that he cares for Eren as a person, as opposed to a mirror of his own convoluted path. Eren, after all, was also raised by Grisha; Eren, he assumes, was also told to fight for Eldia’s freedom, and Eren was given some of the same tools to do so. And Eren’s life, too, was derailed by this; and Eren, too, has come out on the other side battered and disillusioned and too old for how young he was.
After all, this is the last time we saw Eren before encountering his current self:
I know I keep getting hung up on these frames, but they’re so striking! The resignation is so antithetical to everything Eren stood for prior to this–but this is also the Eren who will later take up actual plans to ‘kill them all.’ Not because he wants to, or is fired up to. But because he sees no other way.
So mix that boy with Zeke’s brand of fatalistic nihilism, and you get a hella cocktail made with two parts of Jaeger determination and one part bad decisions. Shaken, stirred and aged a few years. Again, I may be totally, completely wrong! Maybe next chapter will reveal their plan for world peace that doesn’t involve, y’know, annihilating the world, and also explain why the Marley battle was an A+ humanitarian choice to make. Maybe.
It could also be that they’re playing each other, somehow. Maybe all of this is a long con on Eren’s part to bring Zeke to Paradis and use his royal blood without remorse. And maybe Zeke is just biding his time before… something. I’m sure Zeke can think of a lot of somethings. So, like, in the absence of proof, we can talk only of possibilities, and the very picture of the Jaeger brothers making plans side by side is surely one that should make blood run cold in the veins of anyone who knows them. Ruthlessness runs in the family, to say the least.
(What would Grisha do? Cry, probably, but with anger or joy I can’t decide. His boys are definitely changing the world, in one way or another.)
… This is less a meta post, really, and more of a stream of consciousness post powered by the soundtrack of ‘wtf, chapter 105.’ We’ll be back soon with our regularly scheduled programming. Or something.
midnight-in-town 