So the most interesting development in the most recent manga chapter besides moving the existing plot forward, is that as readers we were given a new piece of information that we were not privy to or even hinted at before.
This new piece of information is the female Yellena (I do not know if this is the best translation of her name.) Things we know about Yellena.
- She is a girl / female / women solider, even though she cross dressed and posed as a man with a beard (more on this later.)
- Yellena is from Marley and is not an Eladian.
- Yellena was part of a reconnaissance unit that occured between the Attack on Wall Maria (the outer wall) and the insertion of the Beast Titan and the Cart Titan to help the Marylean Warriors 4 years later.
- Peke alludes that she is an ally with Zeke / devotee of Zeke.
- The cut away to the blimp conversation more or less confirms that Zeke also sees her as an ally.
- Yellena was privy to at least an important part of the plan with disabling the Cart and Jaw Titan, though based off how the discussion was portrayed she may be partake to a greater knowledge of the plan but this is me speculating and it is not really confirmed. I may be reading too much into this. What I am saying is Zeke may trust with his life and be willing to share things with her such as the entire plan, but this is speculation and we really do not know this.
- It is Yellena who disabled the Cart and Beast Titan. Furthermore due to she is a traitor and she was not as watched as much due to Zeke the knowledge of the Survey Corps may be higher than just them watching Marlean for a few years. Aka it is possible that they know all of the command structures and such of how the military works if Yellena was sharing this information before hand. Then again we do not know if Yellena shared anything before hand and she may have disabled the Cart and Jaw Titan as a stand alone operation herself. Regardless either directly or indirectly Yellena may be a pivotal piece in all of this.
And while I did the Yellena stuff above. Other things we learn is that Eren Yeager acted as a stand alone but also the rest of the Survey Corps did not know his location when he posed as an injured soldier, combine with the Survey Corps getting the bare amount of information about the "plan" before the "plan was implemented." There was no sit down and battle strategy between the different arms of the operation before the operation was sprung.
So I say on the blimp we have 3 factions.
- Survey Corps, Levi, Colossal titan / Armin, Commander Hange Zoë, the rest of the Survey Corps Veternas but also new recurits and also the other 2 divisions are now part of the Survey Corps "Army"
- Zeke / Beast Titan and Yellena
- Eren who possess Founding, Attack, and Warhammer Powers
On the ground still part of Marley is
Armored Titan, Jaw Titan, Cart Titan
Who knows what is happening to Anne / Female Titan.
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Sidenote what is happening with our limited information of the "soliders" in the Survey Corps that are not main characters? They used the word "Eladian Empire" and these 6 (now 7) deaths will be the first victims but also martyrs for this new Eladian Empire. When I heard this I was thinking...
damn this is happening. Already we are thinking in verses as us vs them.
These new soldiers on the blimp, new survey corp members there is no
converse in their language, converse as in language like conversation but its language origins means "to live with", "to have dealings with." Nope we have already begun conversations of empire and of dominance.
Nothing about just defensive protection of our new farm land and we just want to be left alone. Nope the soldiers are already talking about empire like this is some form of manifest destiny.
Maybe I am projecting my goals onto the rank and file of the survey corps but I was hoping this "blood lust" did not suddenly emerge so quickly in these new soldiers. But maybe I am being naive, even though this is a fictional story and not necessarily real reality but damn...I was not hoping this would happen.