Thoughts, Theories, and Headcanons: Attack on Titan Chapter 62
Copy-pasted from my Tumblr page.
Just some notes I wrote down after reading Attack on Titan Chapter 62. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.
October 7, 2014
So, with Chapter 62, we just found out that “Geographia” was Rod Reiss’s daughter. Her real name is Frieda (Frida?). She is the eldest of his five true-born children (Historia was illegitimate).
Frieda has been pictured with Historia, teaching her to read and to become a kind, caring person. Historia expresses that she wants to be like Frieda when she grows up-this distresses Frieda, who then removes Historia’s memories of her. Frieda shows up from time to time in Historia’s dreams and Eren’s flashbacks.
She was apparently loved by the people who lived and worked on Rod Reiss’s lands, and was known for her kindness. She’s been shown to be especially compassionate to Historia.
Frieda’s book showed a little girl and a Titan interacting/coexisting. The Titan resembles Ymir. BUT, what if it represented the coordinate (aka Frieda herself)? Was Frieda implying that she wanted her family and Historia coexisting in peace? Recall that Historia was bullied as a kid by other children (not sure if these are RR’s other children).
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Eren’s flashbacks showed previous coordinate titans. If Frieda was one of them, she probably was hinting at herself as the titan, with Historia as the priestly figure, acting as a link between humans and titans. The priestess was known to be kind and passionate, which was what Frieda wanted Historia to emulate. Historia mentioned wanting to be like Frieda. This upsets the latter…maybe she was aware of the atrocities her family was committing and removed Historia’s memories of her in order to dissuade her from becoming the monster*.
Titan = metaphor for atrocities committed by humans against humans?
Priestess = mediator figure to bring about peace between the two? (Titans and humans, or different factions of humanity? Or both?)
Ymir = filling the void Frieda left after she died?
*Even so, this doesn’t explain the Historia-titan panel during Eren’s flashbacks…maybe it’s somebody else in the Reiss bloodline, like an ancestor. IDK, I think I’m going to have to wait until the next chapter comes out to figure out the answer to that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 62 shows a scene in which Eren’s memories are restored, but they are not his own. We’ve seen him remembering a snippet of Frieda’s memory (reflection in a mirror), so it sounds like her memories were transferred to him. But by whom? (Grisha seems the most likely at this point.)
It also mentioned that Rod’s wife and true-born children were killed while trapped in a burning chapel. This was shortly after the breach of Shiganshina; apparently they were praying for the people of Wall Maria. (This is strangely magnanimous of them, considering Frieda’s abilities to alter the populace’s memories.) The chapel was destroyed, but I’m not sure who did it (again, at this point, I have reason to believe Grisha did it. But what stumps me is why would he do something like this against civilians?). Either the Reisses were doing something extremely bad/unethical toward other humans and GY wanted to put a stop to it, or GY had found enough evidence to point to them as the *real* perpetrators who sent Bertolt and Reiner to breach Wall Maria (I don’t think this is likely, because HR and RR explain that they’re on humanity’s side…but at this point in the story one has to ask, which side of humanity??) and wanted to exact revenge on them for being responsible for his wife’s death. (This sounds a bit rash for GY’s character, though…but then again, we don’t see enough of him to know what his tendencies are.)
Either way, GY ended up dead.
I don’t know all the details, but it sounded like there was a big titan brawl that eventually led to everybody biting the big one except Eren.
So…if Frieda was the original coordinate, that means her abilities had to be passed to Eren somehow. By the looks of things, this was done by force.
Grisha took the ability from Frieda, found out there was a price on his head for killing the royal family, and “transferred” the coordinate powers to Eren for “safekeeping”. So he’d already be dead before the authorities caught him.
Eren would not remember how GY died because of the memory manipulation that came with Frieda’s coordinate powers. GY basically put a “block” there so that if Eren ever got caught, he would know nothing of the incident.
He told Eren that their memories will guide him, and that he needed to get to their basement because GY had been keeping information on the Reiss conspiracy there, in addition to whatever titan-related experiments he was working on. (Side note: I was thinking about the possibility that the basement could also be the entrance to underground tunnels, like in Stohess.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was chatting with Tumblr user momtaku last night (10/6/14) on this, shortly after reading the rough translation provided by thedarlingpoppet. She mentioned the idea of Historia replacing Frieda (possibly eating her), but was not sure why…why need a replacement coordinate? Did the coordinate abilities degenerate over time?
Momtaku brought up a theory a while back regarding Bertolt and Reiner’s fates once their mission was complete, in that the two of them would end up getting eaten by successors. This is an interesting point, considering one shifter has to consume another shifter in order to gain his/her abilities, and since B/R’s mission to retrieve the coordinate was close to ending, their purpose would be complete and they would no longer be needed, and likely be disposed of (which, I guess in Bertl’s case, would be a mercy). If Frieda was going through the same “ritual” or whatever, Historia would be her successor(?).
Also from chat w/ momtaku:
“I think Grisha is a good guy*. Whatever the Reiss family was doing was terrible enough that they needed to be stopped at all costs. I think it’s connected to their role in suppressing the memories of the population. They are hiding something. Maybe brutality to RBA’s village? Maybe turning Ymir’s village into Titans. Maybe worse. The ((sic)) about the MPs killing Erwin’s dad because he was close to the truth. Rod Reiss was behind those MPs.”
*I was starting to doubt Grisha’s intentions behind giving Eren the coordinate ability…Rod said they were on humanity’s side and trying to help Eren. But from the looks of things, Rod Reiss was demonizing GY (chapter title is called “Sin”).
Just some notes I wrote down after reading Attack on Titan Chapter 62. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.
October 7, 2014
So, with Chapter 62, we just found out that “Geographia” was Rod Reiss’s daughter. Her real name is Frieda (Frida?). She is the eldest of his five true-born children (Historia was illegitimate).
Frieda has been pictured with Historia, teaching her to read and to become a kind, caring person. Historia expresses that she wants to be like Frieda when she grows up-this distresses Frieda, who then removes Historia’s memories of her. Frieda shows up from time to time in Historia’s dreams and Eren’s flashbacks.
She was apparently loved by the people who lived and worked on Rod Reiss’s lands, and was known for her kindness. She’s been shown to be especially compassionate to Historia.
Frieda’s book showed a little girl and a Titan interacting/coexisting. The Titan resembles Ymir. BUT, what if it represented the coordinate (aka Frieda herself)? Was Frieda implying that she wanted her family and Historia coexisting in peace? Recall that Historia was bullied as a kid by other children (not sure if these are RR’s other children).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eren’s flashbacks showed previous coordinate titans. If Frieda was one of them, she probably was hinting at herself as the titan, with Historia as the priestly figure, acting as a link between humans and titans. The priestess was known to be kind and passionate, which was what Frieda wanted Historia to emulate. Historia mentioned wanting to be like Frieda. This upsets the latter…maybe she was aware of the atrocities her family was committing and removed Historia’s memories of her in order to dissuade her from becoming the monster*.
Titan = metaphor for atrocities committed by humans against humans?
Priestess = mediator figure to bring about peace between the two? (Titans and humans, or different factions of humanity? Or both?)
Ymir = filling the void Frieda left after she died?
*Even so, this doesn’t explain the Historia-titan panel during Eren’s flashbacks…maybe it’s somebody else in the Reiss bloodline, like an ancestor. IDK, I think I’m going to have to wait until the next chapter comes out to figure out the answer to that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 62 shows a scene in which Eren’s memories are restored, but they are not his own. We’ve seen him remembering a snippet of Frieda’s memory (reflection in a mirror), so it sounds like her memories were transferred to him. But by whom? (Grisha seems the most likely at this point.)
It also mentioned that Rod’s wife and true-born children were killed while trapped in a burning chapel. This was shortly after the breach of Shiganshina; apparently they were praying for the people of Wall Maria. (This is strangely magnanimous of them, considering Frieda’s abilities to alter the populace’s memories.) The chapel was destroyed, but I’m not sure who did it (again, at this point, I have reason to believe Grisha did it. But what stumps me is why would he do something like this against civilians?). Either the Reisses were doing something extremely bad/unethical toward other humans and GY wanted to put a stop to it, or GY had found enough evidence to point to them as the *real* perpetrators who sent Bertolt and Reiner to breach Wall Maria (I don’t think this is likely, because HR and RR explain that they’re on humanity’s side…but at this point in the story one has to ask, which side of humanity??) and wanted to exact revenge on them for being responsible for his wife’s death. (This sounds a bit rash for GY’s character, though…but then again, we don’t see enough of him to know what his tendencies are.)
Either way, GY ended up dead.
I don’t know all the details, but it sounded like there was a big titan brawl that eventually led to everybody biting the big one except Eren.
So…if Frieda was the original coordinate, that means her abilities had to be passed to Eren somehow. By the looks of things, this was done by force.
Grisha took the ability from Frieda, found out there was a price on his head for killing the royal family, and “transferred” the coordinate powers to Eren for “safekeeping”. So he’d already be dead before the authorities caught him.
Eren would not remember how GY died because of the memory manipulation that came with Frieda’s coordinate powers. GY basically put a “block” there so that if Eren ever got caught, he would know nothing of the incident.
He told Eren that their memories will guide him, and that he needed to get to their basement because GY had been keeping information on the Reiss conspiracy there, in addition to whatever titan-related experiments he was working on. (Side note: I was thinking about the possibility that the basement could also be the entrance to underground tunnels, like in Stohess.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was chatting with Tumblr user momtaku last night (10/6/14) on this, shortly after reading the rough translation provided by thedarlingpoppet. She mentioned the idea of Historia replacing Frieda (possibly eating her), but was not sure why…why need a replacement coordinate? Did the coordinate abilities degenerate over time?
Momtaku brought up a theory a while back regarding Bertolt and Reiner’s fates once their mission was complete, in that the two of them would end up getting eaten by successors. This is an interesting point, considering one shifter has to consume another shifter in order to gain his/her abilities, and since B/R’s mission to retrieve the coordinate was close to ending, their purpose would be complete and they would no longer be needed, and likely be disposed of (which, I guess in Bertl’s case, would be a mercy). If Frieda was going through the same “ritual” or whatever, Historia would be her successor(?).
Also from chat w/ momtaku:
“I think Grisha is a good guy*. Whatever the Reiss family was doing was terrible enough that they needed to be stopped at all costs. I think it’s connected to their role in suppressing the memories of the population. They are hiding something. Maybe brutality to RBA’s village? Maybe turning Ymir’s village into Titans. Maybe worse. The ((sic)) about the MPs killing Erwin’s dad because he was close to the truth. Rod Reiss was behind those MPs.”
*I was starting to doubt Grisha’s intentions behind giving Eren the coordinate ability…Rod said they were on humanity’s side and trying to help Eren. But from the looks of things, Rod Reiss was demonizing GY (chapter title is called “Sin”).