#youd think he would show him the aftermath where everything is ok. or as ok as it can be.

[nyelaexe]

So I was just thinking about chapter 121 and everything that's happened so far and I was wondering what Grisha would have done if it weren't for PATHS Eren's influence. Eren made Grisha promise his 9 year old self that he'd show him the basment when he returned which is a mindfuck in it's own right. But it gets even creepier when you realize that Grisha most likely never meant for Eren to ever even go to the basement and find the books. One of the biggest plot points of the series has been the basement and the first 3 seasons of the show was all about them trying to get to it but its so creepy now knowing that Eren really wasn't supposed to be there. In the journal Grisha wrote "I hope a fellow patriot finds this", as if someone would just happen upon it. If he had meant for a specific someone to read it then wouldn't he address it to them? If Eren was meant to read it then wouldn't he have used his name?

It also makes me think about how Eren inherited the Attack and Founding titans. I believe that PATHS Eren made Grisha give 9 year old Eren the power of the titans. I always thought it was weird how Grisha was crying in the forest while he injected Eren but I wrote it off as grief for losing his wife and having to turn his son into a titan. I didnt think he was a total monster. But now that we know what was going on behind the scenes of some of Grisha's biggest moments it starts to make sense. The look in his eyes in the Reiss Chapel when he kept sweating and looking to Eren to gauge his reaction and the way he stared straight at PATHS Eren as he promised him the basement key matches the look he had when he told Keith not to follow them into the forest that night he injected Eren.

For some reason PATHS Eren wanted Zeke to see the memory of him eating Grisha. At first I thought that was just Eren fucking with Zeke but now I'm thinking that something big must have happened in the forest that night and I'm almost positive that future Eren had something to do with it. I'm excited to see just how much of a hand Eren had in inheriting his own powers.

And then the "If you want to save Mikasa and Armin" thing. He said it while he injected Eren in the forest that night. I thought Grisha had said that because of how close the three of them were but Eren Kruger said the exact same thing to him over a decade ago when they weren't even born yet. How could he have known that they would exist? Why would Kruger care about some kids he's never meet in the first place?

If anything it'd have made more sense if Kruger would have said something about protecting Eren and Carla. Still would have been weird because Carla was a stranger and Eren didn't even exist yet but at least it would have been his own future wife and son. At some point I even thought that it was a future Grisha sending the thoughts to Kruger but it still wouldn't make any sense for him to say Armin and Mikasa and not Eren and Carla. Armin and Mikasa are the two most important people in Eren's life. I feel like everyone's pretty much known this for a couple of years now but we were all just waiting for it to be confirmed that it was a future version of Eren sending thoughts to Eren Kruger.

Then the depression starts lads. Bad parenting has been a running theme in SNK for all of the 10 years it's been out. Grisha was the certified Trash Dad™ for years. We all assumed that he learned nothing from his time with Zeke and the consequences that followed he and Dina raising him the way they did. But seeing chapters 120 and 121 it really seems like Grisha had no intentions of bringing his family into this again. Ere 's upbringing was a complete 180 from Zeke's. He really was trying to keep his work as a shifter and restorationist and his role as a husband and father separate. We were all so upset that Grisha was trying to turn innocent Eren into another Zeke but the one who turned Eren into this was basically...himself. Chapter 121 shows us Grisha didn't agree with Eren's aspirations of becoming a Scout. He wanted his wife and children to stay safe inside the walls. The fact that he had to doom his other son to a life of terror must have torn him apart.

That being said Grisha is not blameless. The moment between him and Zeke warmed my soul and actually made me like the both of them quite a bit more. I hope it gave the both of them at least a bit of comfort but it will never make up for what he'd already done to Zeke and what he did during his final years. He still went to that cave intent on killing the Reiss family. Yes, he couldn't do it himself and Eren ended up goading him into it but he still massacred an entire family.

Now though I'm wondering if this is really Eren or his successor. Its so damn hard to tell now. We thought that Grisha had acted independently and of his own will and Eren has always claimed to be free but uh...this chapter, man. I feel like its a long shot but I dont think Eren would be immune to a future shifter's will. He has a strong mind but I dont think its impossible. Maybe that's just what I'm hoping for since Eren's been freaking my shit out for the last few chapters though. I was worried for him for thosse first few chapter after the attack on Marley but he's just been scaring the hell out of me lately. This doesn't even seem like Eren anymore.