Attack on Titan has been laced with unexpected events from the first season, shocking fans at every turning point in the series. The creator of the series, Isayama, adeptly spun twists and mind-blowing occurrences at the least expected moment, making the story interesting and thrilling. Each season featured an unforeseen shocker that broadened the story’s horizon.
The First & Second Season’s twists highlighted the true nature of the titans by leveraging on Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie's treachery. The next seasons exposed fans to the transgenerational conflict between Eldia & Marley for centuries. However, the Final Season's reveal concerning the special trait of the Attack Titan was jaw-dropping and definitely unanticipated. The Attack Titan’s precognitive ability was explained by Grisha Jaeger, allowing fans to experience the sudden turn in Attack on Titan’s plot narrative.
A Trip Down By The Memory Lane
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The 79th episode of Attack on Titan was premised on the emotionally-scarred Zeke's goal to show Eren how manipulative his father truly is. It's fair to believe that Zeke's action was based on his father's abandonment of his family to raise an Eldian home within the walls of Paradis Island. Eren's father was a core member of the Eldian Restorationists, veered towards freedom of the Eldians within Marley & Paradis Island. Based on this fact, Zeke was convinced that Eren was brainwashed by his father into carrying out the Restorationists' propaganda unknowingly.
Hate-filled, Zeke guides Eren through Grisha Jaeger's memories, trying to buy Eren into his falsely-drawn notion resulting from his traumatic childhood. Eventually, the plot begins to change after Grisha soliloquizes, confessing how he misses his son, Zeke. The sequential events following this confession opened Zeke's eyes to the truth about Grisha & Eren's father-son relationship. Choosing to act deluded, Zeke still firmly insisted that their father was the main instigator behind Eren's actions until Grisha's memories finally extend towards his visit to the royal family, Fritz's bloodline. In this scene, Zeke discovers the daunting truth behind the Attack Titan and realizes that he has been under Eren's palms all along.
The Attack Titan’s Future-Seeing Trait
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Memory manipulation & transition isn't a new development in Attack on Titan. Earlier in the series, fans discovered that Karl Fritz, using the powers of the Founding Titan, erased the memories of Eldia's bloody history from its citizenry within Paradis Island. Regarding memory transition, in the show's previous seasons, it was depicted that any individual who belongs to the nine human-Titan category could access their predecessors' memories. A clear example is the Tybur family, who were conscious of Eldia's dark history through the memories of the War Hammer Titan passed down through generations. Same with the Fritz royal family with the aid of the Founding Titan. The Paths serve as the supporting channel for the Titan memory transfer.
However, debuting in Episode 79 was a clearly different ability of Attack Titan; an ability to see the future, or rather receive memories from the future Attack Titans. Some fans theorize that since the meaning of “Shingeki no Kyojin” translates as “Advancing Titan," it is possible that Isayama may have 'foreshadowed' the titan's ability since the start of the series. Surprisingly, on a closer look, Isayama started hinting at this ability from the first Attack Titan revealed in the series, Eren Kruger. While conversing with Grisha Jaeger in season three, Kruger mentioned Mikasa and Armin, kids that hadn’t been born during his timeline, subtly hinting at a special ability. Although this ability is useful, it’s not really potent since Attack Titan shifters can’t converse with their future or past selves; they can only catch filtered glimpses of what is to come.
How Does The Attack Titan’s Future-Seeing Ability Really Work?
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Everything starts when Grisha approaches the Reiss Family, pleading with Frieda to save Eldia by using the Founding Titan to prevent a wide-scale onslaught of the unsuspecting Eldians within the walls. However, Frieda refuses, following King Fritz’s resolve to not use the Founding Titan’s powers as an offensive defense against intruders or anything threatening Eldia’s safety. After hearing Frieda’s refusal, Grisha resolves to end the Reiss family – an occurrence he already knows will happen by catching glimpses from Eren’s memory. The Reiss family could only stare in shock after Grisha explained the Attack Titan’s special trait. However, even after the mind-numbing reveal, Grisha wasn't able to carry out the extermination.
Initially, Eren told Zeke that he was disgusted at his father when he peered into this memory. Unknown to Zeke, the true reason for Eren’s distaste was his father’s lack of conviction to carry out the necessary. In the next scene, Eren then whispers to his father, convincing him to carry out the slaughter, manipulating him using Kruger and Dina – who both sacrificed themselves for a greater cause. In the anime, what looked like Eren whispering was actually Eren sending thoughts/memories from the future to the gullible Grisha Jaeger, conveniently using his father’s weaknesses to harden his murderous resolve. Summarily, Attack Titans can create a loop among themselves where they show each other their respective memories, gaining foresight into the future and acting based on their revelations. Eren & Grisha’s communication is proof of that.
Grisha also glimpsed into the horrific plan that Eren intended to carry out – the reason for giving his warning to Zeke to try and stop Eren. Remember that Grisha was peering into the future through Eren's memories, so it is impossible for him to physically touch the grown-up Zeke. What really happened during that moment was Grisha estimating where Zeke would stand in the future Eren's memories and then proceeding to hug the thin air; however, Zeke stood in that spot but at a future timeline. Grisha's warning to Zeke is proof that Eren was indeed going to carry out his genocidal mission displayed in the last episodes of the season. Fans can only wait and see whether Zeke would be a central player at the ending of the series.