Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2 Episode 8 Discussion

Norman_Ray said:
Here's the great summaries by HK on reddit about this Episode

-The rest of the world is not overrun with Titans, and instead is a setting reminiscient of the early 1900's - roughly 1920's.

-Grisha grew up in a ghetto in a nation called Marley. Grisha and his family belong to an ethnicity called the “Eldians”.

-About 1850 years ago, an Eldian by the name of “Ymir Fritz” allegedly made a “Deal with the Devil of the Earth” and gained the power of the Titans, becoming able to turn into a Titan. (Note: We don’t know what exactly the deal was or what the devil was, the story is described as a religious myth, so we don’t know what is true and what is exaggeration yet.)

-When Ymir Fritz died, her “soul” was split into 9 Eldians, each of whom became a Shifter. One of the 9 Shifters was the Founding Titan, the master Shifter, who had the power to control Titans, and thus controlled all of the rest of the Shifters. This was the Fritz Family. Using the power of the Titans, the Eldian people created a massive empire and conquered many people, including the Marleyans.

-For many years, the Eldians ruled a large continent, passing the 9 Shifting powers down from generation to generation. The Eldian rebels claim they were good rulers who built infrastructure and improved farming, but the Marleyans claim the Eldians were genocidal and committed atrocities (we don’t know who is telling the truth, it is possible they are both correct or both incorrect).

-There would sometimes be periods of civil war as the noble Eldian families feuded with each other, but King Fritz, the mast Shifter with the Founding Titan, would always use the Coordinate to end the fighting.

-However, when the 145th King inherited the Founding Titan power, he decided not to intervene, and at the same time the Marleyans decided to launch a Rebellion against the Eldian Empire. The Marleyans somehow “stole” 7 of the 9 Shifter powers.

-Instead of crushing the rebellion and ending the War, the 145th King Fritz decided to take some of the Eldian people and sailed away to Paradis Island, where he created the 3 massive Walls out of hundreds of thousands of Mindless Titans using the power of the Founding Titan. He wiped the memories of these Eldians and prohibited the advancement of technology, for unknown reasons. Thus, he became the First King of the Walls 107 years ago.

-He makes a threat to the Marleyans: if they attack the Walls, he will unleash the army of Wall Titans and they will crush the entire world. Mutually assured destruction, essentially. The First King only wants to be left alone in peace.

-Meanwhile, back on the mainland, the Marleyans eventually won the war and became the dominant force on the continent. The Marleyans hated the Eldians for oppressing them for so many years, so they locked the Eldians up into ghettos.

-Some time after this, an Industrial Revolution happened in the outside world, creating new technology such as photography, airplanes, advanced cannons, and blimps.

-A few decades after all this, the events of this episode happened. Grisha Jaeger was born. One day, he snuck outside with his sister Faye to show her a blimp. They were caught by Marleyan soldiers, Sgt. Gross and Kruger. Grisha was beaten, while his sister was taken away and her body was found in the river. Grisha is furious, and as a child doesn’t understand why the Marleyans hate them. His parents are nearly brainwashed by Marleyan propaganda into believing that the Eldians are evil and deserve to be treated badly.

-When Grisha turns 18, an Eldian resistance movement recruits him. The Eldian rebels have a spy within the Mare government, known as “The Owl”. The Owl gives them secret documents about Eldian history, and sends them Dina Fritz, the last surviving member of a branch of the Fritz Family that chose to stay behind on the mainland instead of sail to Paradis Island.

-Grisha and Dina fall in love and are married, and have a son, who they name Zeke (the person who will later become the Ape Titan). This means Eren and Zeke are half-brothers. They and the Eldian rebels plan to one day overthrow the Marleyans, and believe Zeke will be their saviour.

-When Zeke turns 5 years old, the Mare government reveals they have plans to conquer Paradis Island to secure the vast reserves of fossil fuels and natural gas on the island, since they need fuel to power their inventions and wish to maintain their power.

-The Marleyans are recruiting Eldian children, who will become child soldiers and use the captured Titan powers to destroy the Walls. The reason they need Eldian children is because only Eldians can turn into Titans (which is one of the reasons why they hate the Eldians so much – they believe the Eldians are all monsters who are only pretending to be humans).

-Grisha and Dina decide to use Zeke as a sleeper agent to infiltrate the program and become a Shifter. However, after 2 years of training, Zeke sides with the Marleyans and betrays his parents and the other rebels. The Marleyans capture them all, but cannot find the Owl.

-The rebels are taken to a port on the southern coast of Paradis Island, where it is revealed Eldian criminals are punished by being turned into Mindless Titans forever, a fate worse than death. This is where all the Mindless Titans outside the Walls come from.

-All the rebels are turned into Mindless Titans and set loose via an injection of Titan Serum, which is revealed to be spinal fluid taken from the spine of a Titan. Several of these rebels are actually the some of the Titans that were present in the Battle of Trost. Dina is revealed to be the Smiling Titan that ate Eren’s mother.

-However, at the last moment, before Grisha is transformed, the soldier Kruger reveals that he was the Owl all along. He pushes Sgt. Gross off the wall of the port. Kruger reveals that he has one of the Titan powers, transforms, destroys the boat the Marleyans used, and begins killing the Marleyan soldiers.

SOURCE : https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/c1h8qr/shingeki_no_kyojin_season_3_episode_57_discussion/erd8gy8/