Attack On Titan Season 3, Episode 21: Recap & Review

Episode 58, Attack Titan

The Owl’s real name is Eren Kruger. Grisha question Eren on why he refused to transform sooner. As Eren collapses he confesses to “cutting off the fingers and turning thousands of subjects of Ymir into Titans.” He believed that this would help Eldia. He gives Grisha a mission to get the founding Titan’s power. He tells Grisha that he will “inherit” his Titan and the reason he can’t do it himself is that those “who inherit one of the Nine Titans dies thirteen years later.” This is called “Ymir’s curse,” meaning that Armin has thirteen years to live and Eren has less than eight.

Mikasa believes that this must be a lie, although she may be in doubt. Eren states that if a bearer dies without being eaten a baby will be born with the ability. Eren explains that all subjects of Ymir are connected by the Coordinate (Founding Titan). Grisha cowards in front of the new mission he’s expected to undertake. He’s feels too much guilt. Regardless, Eren is able to convince him to take up the mission. He reveals that each Titan has a name, and his Titan is called the Attack Titan. Levi and Hange arrive and release Eren and Mikasa. They are heading to meet Queen Historia.

Historia is reading the letter the Ymir wrote to her. In the letter Ymir suggest that she will be killed and that she wanted to marry Historia. When she touches the letter she sees what looks like Ymir’s entire life. The Scouts explain what happened at the Wall so the rest of the government are up to speed. Hange explains that while Eren has inherited the Founding Titan’s power he can’t use it because he’s not of royal blood. However, a royal descendant that inherits the Founding Titan wouldn’t be possessed by the King’s will preventing from acting against the world.

Eren realizes that he was able to use the power of the Founding Titan because he was touching Dina. He’s unsure what would happen to Historia if he revealed this as a possible reason. In the flashback, Eren tells Grisha he needs to “love” someone, otherwise “history will repeat itself.” He then says something strange. He tells Grisha if he ” wants to save Mikasa, Armin, and everyone else,” he must complete his mission. Grisha is unaware who he’s talking about. Eren seems to be unaware who’s memory he was tapping into. I’ll admit this part was so confusing or shocking that I though it might be a translation error.

We know that Grisha became a father figure to Mikasa after he parents death, did he assume that he had to protect her? What we also know is that memories can be past “along” the “path.” It was never stated that these memories could it only go from the past to the current Titan holder. What if it could go from the current to the past as well. Of course this is just a guess and it would be confusing if it worked that way. Regardless, the depth of storytelling and newly introduced mythos makes this series even more entertaining. The final episode will likely be a setup for the next season, but with Attack on Titan you just never know.