Hello! On the latest chapter we found out that the Survey Cops think that Eren is being manipulated by Zeke. Personally, I'm not sure I buy it so I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter :)

Hey there!! Actually you have impeccable timing because I was just about to talk about this in a post LOL so i guess i get to kill two birds with one stone ^^

Okay, so the Idea of Zeke somehow manipulating Eren is an interesting one. I mean you have Zeke, who is notorious for backstabbing and lying to people, having all the cards at play under his control. He has Yelena, who has control over all the Marelyan soldiers and is probably playing all of them like a fiddle to further Zeke’s plans and agenda. He successfully sowed the seeds of mistrust between the people of paradise and of the military government, further gaining more control over the populace without much interference from outside parties like the SC when it comes to his “secret plan”. And now he has Eren, the holder of the coordinate, by his side. And is able to use the rumbling once he and Eren are in contact with eachother.

Now the Question is, what is Zeke’s intentions? And the frustrating thing is, we don’t know. Atleast not yet. But we can kind of find some hints on his mindset of the eldian people, and of the world as a whole, through chapter 110 and past scenes of the manga.

During the RTS arc, Zeke displayed disgust and anger towards the people of paradise, saying how they were making the same mistakes over and over again and how ridiculous they are for finding justification for some glorious death.

There’s just bitterness and rage spouting of his words. He views these people as products of a cycle that continues to have them make the same mistakes over and over again, and views their struggles to achieve freedom as some ridiculous concept that will only bring upon their death. There’s no sympathy in these words. There’s not an ounce of desire to want to help them. Because he then treats their deaths as some kind of game for him to enjoy.

So I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden, after 4 years, he suddenly decides to help paradise out of the kindness of his heart. And i think Levi bests summarizes it in chapter 110.

He calls out Zeke’s intentions for paradise as nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Zeke obviosly see’s the value of human life as something so small and insignificant, and whatever he is plotting, its def not for the benefit of paradise . Because he doesn’t care one way or another if they live or die.

But there is someone who does.

What separates Zeke and Eren is the fact that Eren cares deeply about not only his home, but of the people closest to him He is probably one of the most empathetic characters of this series. Because he cares just too much for his loved ones. To the point that he would do whatever it took takes to protect the people he holds dear and loves.

And Zeke knew this.

While he might not have directly manipulated Eren to force him to act upon infiltrating Marley, using Yelena, he gave Eren the necessary push to use his sense of urgency againts him and force him to make his own moves againts Marley, ensuring that he could only turn to zeke who is the only one who could help him control his coordinate powers because of his royal blood. Eren is acting with a sense of doing everything he possible can to protect his home from any foreign invaders even if it meant dirtying his hands. The problem here is, what Eren wants, might not coincide with what Zeke is planning. Especially since there is a strong possibility that he already has planted poison in the food and drinks that the higher officials in the military have consumed.

Thus putting paradise in danger from the inside. Now the real question is, how much has zeke told him about what his plans really are, and did he only tell Eren what he wanted to hear in the chance that he could bring him to his side? Or did he tell Eren everything and is willing to comply with whatever means necessary to help protect his home. But if that were the case then he wouldn’t be killing paradise civilians left and right and be putting them in this kind of danger that could destroy them.

Here’s what i think might happen, and i realize i could be wrong, but i think it would fit in perfectly with snk’s theme of the children repeating the same mistakes as their father.

Back in the Grisha flashback arc, we saw Grisha as this young man who was able to round up people over to his cause to overthrow the Marley government and bring eldia back into power.

Similar to how Eren is rallying the people of paradise to his side with the hope of bringing change into their world and to help restore Eldia into power.

The main difference here is that while Grisha was motivated by revenge againts those who had killed his little sister, Eren’s main motivation is more selfless than that, as I’m sure he doesn’t really care about restoring the eldian empire, as he does protecting his home and family. Plus this Eren has far moved past the revenge driven child that he was in the beginning of the series.

But for the sake of this comparison, lets say that Eren is slowly going towards the same path as his dad. How did that go for grisha?

He immediately regretted his actions the moment he realized that it put all of his comrades in danger. Not realizing until now that all of this happened because he allowed it and because of his mistakes.

And that will probably happen to Eren the moment he gives Zeke the chance to use the coordinate. Realizing that Zeke has no intention of protecting Paradise, he’ll come to regret that he put his whole home and friends in danger.

Anyways!! phew that was a long answer lol and im not even sure if i correctly answered your question, but i hope i did ^^ Thank you for the question! Had alot of fun writing this.