Days of Future Eren’s Past

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Eren Kruger, the informant known as “The Owl”, kills all of the Marleyan authorities in the area with his Titan form, much to Grisha’s awe and horror. He’s also confused, as Kruger didn’t save Dina, who was of royal blood and could have easily held the power of a Titan, but this likely would have only led to her being used as a breeder for Marley, meaning she was better off dead. In fact, all of this suffering Grisha has been through was all for a purpose. Losing his sister, joining the revolutionaries, and now being on the edge of death, all to make him the prime candidate to inherit Kruger’s power, which he knows because he had also felt that kind of loss and powerlessness, seeing friends, family, and comrades die (sometimes at his own hand) just to maintain a cover and get to this point.

Kruger tasks Grisha with a mission: go into the walls with his new Titan power, start a family, and take back the Founding Titan from the royal family by force, namely through eating the user. However, after gaining Kruger’s power, he’ll only have 13 years to live, a condition for those with these abilities known as “The Curse of Ymir”, named for how long the original Ymir died after she became the first Founding Titan. This is because all Eldians are connected, presumably through time and space, through what is known as “The Coordinate” and the first Founding Titan. And now Grisha will become further connected by becoming Kruger’s Titan, known as “The Attack Titan”.

In the present, Levi releases Eren, Armin, and Mikasa from confinement early to give their report to Historia. While they get there, she reads Ymir’s letter to her, which is more or less a goodbye, but a touch of the paper sends her shockwaves of Ymir’s memories, and likely her death.

The report is given on the findings in Shiganshina on Grisha’s life and the world outside the walls, as well as the nearly two hundred dead as the cost of obtaining that info. During this, Eren realizes the only time he had used the Founding Titan’s power to control other Titans was when he was in contact with Dina’s Titan, someone of royal blood, but he holds his tongue on this, worried about what the military will do to Historia if they find out.

OUR TAKE

And thus ends the rest of the massive lore dump started last week, and WOW are we gonna need a wooden spoon or something because this is not going to go down the pipes without breaking it up.

The major new thing here is the clearing up of certain rules regarding Titan powers. We have a major wrinkle in the emergence of a built-in time limit that each person who gains a Titan ability will die thirteen years later, meaning both Eren and Armin’s days are numbered. Unsurprisingly, this is not great news for either them or Mikasa, who now has to deal with the reality that her friends will likely die before her, regardless of whether or not they win this battle against the forces of Marley. With them being more focused on this mission, it could be that those on their side have less time left, but we’ve heard talk that they have other candidates waiting in the wings to take over if one falls, so they won’t be stopped by just waiting.

The other bit of info, possibly connected to this, is the explanation of “The Coordinate”, which is bound to the Founding Titan or whoever inherits its power. We’ve heard the term used here or there across this and last season by Reiner, Bertholdt, and Zeke in relation to Eren, as they likely had a plan to retrieve it like Kruger (who I guess was Eren’s namesake) mentioned to Grisha. It’s unknown what they plan to do with it, other than that it would be bad for the cause of the Eldians, but something that has that level of connection with memories and time probably isn’t something you want people to like them to get their hands on. There’s also some implication that, while it has been shown connecting memories of previous Titans together, it may also feedback memories of the present to the past, as Eren Kruger mentions Mikasa and Armin to Grisha before his death at a time when they weren’t born.

But what this and last episode amount to is the greater scope of Grisha’s mission, the world, and what made both Grisha and Eren the men they are today. Fueled by a strong ambition for a larger cause that they couldn’t even fathom, but being willing to cut their lives short to make it happen. Only one episode remains until the season finale, which hopefully will have its own noteworthy moments as well to cap off what has been a pretty exceptional third season.

Score 9/10