Musing Over Manga: Attack on Titan Chapters 63 & 64--History Repeating Itself

To be completely honest, the lower half of that image scares me more...

(A/N: The post deals with spoilers for the entire manga and contains disturbing and graphic images. Please do not read unless you are caught up!)


Wow, I really bring new meaning to the word "late," huh? Originally this post was delayed thanks to finals, and then I didn't finish it time before Chapter 64 came out... And after that the holidays took a bigger drain on my free time than I thought, not to mention getting those 12 Days posts done. And that's why part of my New Year's resolutions will be to get these posts out on a timely basis! No more slacking! In the meantime I guess you can consider this a recap post, since I've got a good feeling that we're about to hit the climax of this arc.


Let's start with Rod Reiss. We get a ton of information from him in both of these chapters, but the way it's presented still makes me think that his main goal is to manipulate Historia. He zeroes in on Historia's fond memories of Frieda and uses that to turn her against Eren. While I don't deny that Eren's dad did a horrible thing, there's clearly more than what Rod was telling Historia. He may be the one narrating, but the flashback images are coming through Eren's eyes. We still don't have context for what Grisha was trying to accomplish.


For example, Rod makes it sound like Grisha just walked in and slaughtered them all when Eren's flashback shows what could be interpreted as Grisha begging with the Reiss family at one point. I think that he was trying to make a deal with them, or at least get Frieda to agree with him. Whatever Grisha was trying to accomplish, the end goal was obtaining Frieda's power, and to me it looks like Grisha wanted Frieda's cooperation at first.


But what is Frieda's power, exactly? Chapter 63 pretty quickly debunked my theory that it had to do with becoming a Titan shifter, since we see that Grisha was capable of controlling himself as a Titan (how he got that form is still a mystery, though). They only thing that Rod does mention specifically is the memories that Eren inherited. This explains a lot of things from earlier on in the series, including how Eren knew how to transform. The big reveal at the end of Chapter 64 is that the collective memories of everyone whose held this power, including the truth about the Titan who created the walls and wiped humanity's memory (IT'S ALL TITANS, EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO TITANS) is held by the person who inherits it. It was passed down through the Reiss family, but now Eren is the one who holds it. Now that his memories have been unlocked, Eren knows the truth about the history of the world, whatever that may be.


However, while that knowledge is probably dangerous and world-altering--after all, the government put a lot of effort towards making sure that records of the world beyond the walls weren't common knowledge--I'm not convinced that's the only "power" Rod was referring to. He also said that Frieda had the strongest Titan but didn't know how to control it...sound familiar? Eren is still figuring out what he can and can't do as a Titan, and there is evidence now that he was following the extra memories in him from the beginning.

I also think that Rod was jointly referring to the memory manipulation, which is probably related to the "Titan Scream" as well. He makes a big deal about the "power" being stolen from its "rightful place" and claims that only people from the Reiss family are able to use it properly. I've read some interesting theories about Eren being a Reiss--which, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if that was true at this point, given how similar Eren's mom and Frieda look to each other--but I think the claim about the family birthright is yet another lie from Rod. I don't think that it's impossible for someone else to use it--I think that it's more dangerous for them if all of that power is in a vessel that they can't control.


After all, Rod claims that the memory manipulation doesn't effect nobles, but conviently glosses over the fact that Frieda used her power on Historia. Some of it did stick around and affected her subconciously (ex: I have to be a good girl), but until this moment Historia had no idea she had a sister. The nobles may have been spared, but I'm not sure that they're immune. And then there's the possibility that memory manipulation and titan control actually isn't that special when it comes to Titan shifters--Annie was able to do the latter, after all. There's also the fact that she turned herself into crystal, which may be addressed soon considering that the cave that they're in seems to be made out of the same material.


But getting back on track, when it came to the memories, Rod mentioned that none of the previous holders decided to reveal what they knew. He says that it's proof that they understood what that first Titan was trying to accomplish, but I think that it's more likely that how they were raised may have more to do with it. Frieda seems to have maintained a fair amount of free will, but she still adhered to the status quo. She went to see Historia, but she erased her memories. She loved the people who lived on her family's land, but after the walls fell, she went to pray instead of going to the front lines to do something about it. Frieda strikes as someone whose heart was in the right place, but she didn't want to rock the boat too much.


Eren is nearly the complete opposite of that. He's fueled by rage against the Titans that killed his mother and has an amazing amount of determination and will to back that up. He's seen too much to care about the establishment--in fact, whether he realized it or not, he's been fighting them from the start. As soon as the government was aware of his power, they tried to take him out, and now we have a clear reason why. Eren has the power of the King. Eren knows the truth about this world. That's why they want to take him out. In Eren's hands, the current power structure is over.

But assuming that Rod is right and that the power has to be used by a Reiss--why is he passing it on to Historia and not himself? He's the real king and the last of the pure bloodline. If this is really just about returning the power to the Reiss bloodline, they'd really only need Eren. If Rod is telling the truth, then involving his bastard child is unnecessary. Why do they need Historia specifically?


In the flashback images, we see who had the "power" before Frieda--Rod's "younger" brother. I put "younger" in quotes since he looks a few decades older than Rod in the above image. It's possible that having all of those memories shortens the bearer's lifespan. I imagine that all of this supernatural stuff would put quite the toll on the human body.

And then there's Rod's thousand yard stare after bringing this up...

However, it's also possible that it's a lot simpler than that. By the end of his speech, Rod has Historia wrapped around his finger. In the space of a few hours, she's gone from hating her father to being willing to eat her friend at the suggestion that she might see Frieda again. That part is where Rod's manipulation is the clearest. Frieda is dead, and nothing will bring her back. Historia might get the memories, but what she really wants is long gone. Honestly, I'm getting increasingly disappointed in Historia for falling for all of this. Doesn't she feel just a little suspicious of the father who abandoned her suddenly accepting her and wanting her to do this horrific thing for him?

TL;DR HISTORIA WHAT ARE YOU DOING

And then there's the fact that we still technically don't have Eren's reaction to all of this yet. He's trying to tell Historia something, but it looks like she's interpreting that as him begging for his life. I'm not so sure. There's probably a missing puzzle piece somewhere in those memories, and I'm really curious about what it is.


That'll have to wait until the rescue though, and it looks like we'll have an Ackerman showdown before that. I've been really excited about this, since this time we'll be able to see Levi and Kenny on equal footing without a surprise attack giving one or the other an upper hand. Or at least, that's what I thought. The way that Levi describes Kenny is pretty terrifying, even though we've already seen him fight. I've thought in the past that it's a good thing that Levi is on the heroes' side since before this arc the only character who was a close match to him was Mikasa. But hearing Levi himself say that Kenny is just as strong as him makes me concerned...


At least we're starting to get some answers on the Ackerman mystery. Mikasa says that her father told her that his family was "persecuted" and driven away, and then Levi asks if she's ever had a moment where she felt a rush of power from inside her. It looks like Mikasa's backstory moment where she killed her kidnappers to save Eren is even more relevant to the main story than we thought. It's possible that this power is something that runs in the family, since Levi states that Kenny told him about it once, and that it happened to him too.

I am a little disappointed that the strength of the two strongest characters in the series so far isn't due to them being badasses on their own but instead due to some inherited power. However, I do appreciate the way that some of the plot threads that we've gotten throughout this arc are starting to show their relevance, and given what has happened so far, we're long overdue for an explanation as to who Levi really is and where he came from.

(A/N: Spoilers for the prequel manga A Choice With No Regrets follow in the paragraph below.)

Speaking of backstory, I seen some speculation that the moment Levi got his Ackerman power took place in the prequel series, a.k.a. A Choice With No Regrets, during the final two chapters when his friends Farlan and Isabel are killed by Titans. I see where people are going with this since it's the only time we see Levi completely snap, but I don't think that this is when he got his power. One of the main criticisms of ACWNR is that Levi is just as powerful and competent as he is in the main series, since he has little trouble adjusting to the way the Scouts fight Titans. Additionally, in one of the shorter side chapters (which regrettably didn't make it to the English release) Levi takes on a group of people--one of which is more than several times his size--and comes out unscathed without any help. There's plenty of evidence in ACWNR that shows that Levi already has the power. That means that this had to happen at some point before the prequel.


We also get solid evidence in this chapter that Levi was not deliberately hiding the Ackerman connection from Mikasa because he had no clue what Kenny's last name was. That means that he was also trying to figure out what kind of connection they had, leading to the question about her power. This makes me think that up to this point Levi believed that he was tied to Kenny through shared experience, not bloodlines, so the family connection is probably news to him too. I also get the feeling that whatever happened to unlock his power is also what made him leave Kenny behind. Isayama has said that he wants to cover Levi's past in the manga, and I imagine that will clear up a few things, including Kenny's goal.


At the end of Chapter 64, we find out that Kenny had been aiming to become King all along, which explains why he's working with the group whose members he previously killed. However, it doesn't seem like just a straight power grab. Before the fight scene in Chapter 64, the female soldier who's his second-in-command talks about how Kenny's plan will bring "meaning in this meaningless world." I doubt those were his word's exactly (Kenny's even less eloquent than Levi), but that's a lofty dream for a mass murderer. He probably wanted to use that power to somehow change the world from the inside out in the same way that the Scouts want to use Eren's power to stop the fighting against the Titans permanently. Of course, we don't know any details on Kenny's real goal yet, but it looks like we're heading towards another shades of gray moment where the villain of the current arc is more nuanced than we first guessed.


However, they have to get to him first. The majority of Chapter 64 is filled with action, and it was great to see the plan to get past Kenny's giant squad (over thirty people?!). Connie, Sasha, and Jean also all have great moments which are made even more impressive considering not that long ago they were talking about how they refused to fight other humans. I wonder how they would've reacted if they'd known that in roughly 48 hours they would be fighting to kill.


At the moment though, I'm mostly scared for Hanji. Taking a serrated hook to the shoulder has to hurt... Not to mention getting thrown into a pillar right after getting it ripped out. A lot of people reacted to this scene similarly to when Hanji was injured after Bertoldt transformed into the Colossal Titan on top of the wall, saying that Hanji is probably going to die. However, people also said that about Jean in the cliffhanger from Chapter 58, so I'm not that concerned yet.


In the past, Isayama has been pretty explicit about character deaths, leaving no room for any other interpretation unless you are a "Marco Is Alive" theorist. In this case, it's made clear that Hanji wasn't immediately taken out, and Levi tells Armin to stay with them, something that he wouldn't do if it was clear that Hanji was dead. It's more likely that this was meant to raise the tension of the scene and/or take Armin and Hanji away from the front lines for a while. At the moment, the evidence points to Hanji being badly injured, but not anything more than that.

And that's what I'm going to believe until the next chapter tells me otherwise.

In the meantime, good luck dealing with an enraged Levi, Kenny's squad!

But the good news is that right now Erwin's on his way with reinforcements. I'm kind of hoping for one of those dramatic moments where they show up right when it looks like all is lost, but this isn't the kind of series that does this kind of thing, so I'm not really expecting it. It's more possible that Armin and Hanji might be the ones who let Erwin and company know what's going on before he goes off to help Levi and the rest of his squad rescue Eren. Everything's leading up to at least a few more high-stakes battles, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Until then, I'm going to go find some brain bleach so that I can forget Zackley's scene. *shudder*

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