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Originally Posted by
Kato
Ugh, I'm not sure why but I really don't like Eren suddenly turning all philosophical.
Sorry but Eren was always going to become philosophical no matter what happened. For two reasons.
#1
Back in Vol 21 and 22 (chapters 83 to 90), after the battle of Shiganshina District, after the Basement, Eren entered "the cave" (as in Plato) when they retrieved
"THE TRUTH" in the form of the 3 diaries of his father. Eren was always going to become Philosophical when he found out he only had 13 years to live (well only about 8 years left to live for he lived 5 years already after inheriting the Titan.)
When someone knows in a concrete way they are going to die,
it always triggers an existential crisis and this will always cause someone to be philosophical, even if temporary.
Eren could not be the boy running towards the future forever, the one who did not care about consequences, only living for the future, when he know that he was going to die at a specific time and date.
It is easy to be on "the attack" when you think the future is boundless and you only have to do "self-care" to preserve your energy stores, to preserve your body. And remember Eren sucked at this, he could not self supply and he required his friends and his titan power of regeneration to not breakdown way earlier.
When you do not "see the Walls" around reality you see reality as infinite, reality is abstract, but put a person into a cage even if its the cage of death with only a specific amount of time you have left to live and they will always feel stressed and they will try to either resist the cage, or they will try to better "order the remaining moments of their life.
#2
What is new with chapter #112, except it is not really new, is we know the "paths" the will of the titans influence the hosts of the Titan Shifters. Except this is not really new for we know that all the way back to the The Uprising Arc (chapters 51 to 70), for the First King (Karl Fritz, who was actually the 145th King) with his Founding Titan / Progenitor Titan and the Coordinate locked the actions of all following inheritors of this Titan. They were all trapped in the cycle by his will.
So what we learned in chapter #112 is not new information, what is new is that Eren now has 3 different wills / path sources
beside his own trying to influence his behavior, at least 4 different people are trying to control Eren inside of his own head, and even more people are trying to control Eren outside his head with their words and deeds.
The only way to get out of this is via philosophy
A where you debate and come to a consensus amount yourselves, or entropy / random chance / random choice
B where different wills will grab hold of Eren's behavior at the right time / worse time.
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It is alright if you do not like where the story is going Kato :smallsmile: , but where the story is going has kind of been foreshadowed for 4 years now ever since The Uprising arc. We are merely at the Reprise further down the "musical" story, we have repetition / reiteration / recapitulation of what occurred before, except the story is not quite the same as it was 4 years ago.
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And frankly, I don't care for the Ackerman twist either. I tend to say any explanation is better than no explanation but now...
It is okay if you do not find the explanation given to be satisfying :smallsmile: it is okay for the answer to be unsatisfactory :smalltongue: something something wings of freedom.
Take for example Levi Ackerman and his uncle Kenny Ackerman (the crazed psychopath / sociopath.) Both of them are not "machines" to destiny, but instead people who actually embrace
choice above all.
For example Levi giving Eren the choice in the Female Titan arc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VUm6ZpGctc
Or Kenny Ackerman specifically choosing to be vile (be a serial killer), for at least that is his own choices, choices of his own will, his own actions.
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I'm just curious whom he's working for.
Zeke is only working for himself now, for he has no obligation / duties to others beside his own will at this point. He has less than a year to live and thus he can be as generous or petty as he wants to be. This "freedom" allows him to be quite narcissistic or Zeke can be the ultimate altrust, or something in between.
We only have one internal Zeke monologue and that was from 4 years ago when Zeke had 5 years left of his life. I do not trust any word out of Zeke mouth to others, but I do trust his internal monologue for this was "private / secret."
In the monologue where Zeke played baseball with the rocks (chapter 79, 80, and 81), Zeke hates "pointless struggle" and "pointless death," Zeke thinks memories will save you from that, but the most revealing part of this is while Zeke
pretends to be stoic / equanimous / even emotions / even soul / calm soul the reality is Zeke is a flood of emotions and arousal states like a ocean that produces quite large waves. Zeke in chapter 79 was blinded by his own emotions (which influenced his perception), while Levi (who is very similar to Zeke thus their strong dislike to each other) is the true person who has mastered his own emotions and that is why he was the victor in that encounter.
Who is going to "win this rematch" I can not say. The whole encounter is by design meant to parallel the battle of Shiganshina District between Levi and Zeke. It is almost an exact rematch with Levi vs Zeke especially when you figure that Zeke has mindless titans nearby, ones he can bark commands at. One of the things that make me suspicious that Zeke may win this is not his memory speech in 81, but he understands the need for a point of reference in 79, and he realizes in 81 he lost due to "perception" where he underestimated both the Survey Corps and Levi. Zeke may lose but he is unlikely to make the same mistake twice in the exact same way, "Zeke is smarter than that."