Is Eren The Author of His Story? The Attack Titan’s ‘Time-Travelling’ Powers Explained!

Episode 79 of Attack on Titan gave us a mouthful to chew on – Zeke being knocked off his high horse, a tearful father-son moment and the possibility of time travel.

During Grisha’s hesitation to eliminate the Royal Family, Eren seemed to have crossed the barriers of time and spoke to his father in the past, inciting his wrath to carry out his mission.

But Zeke took Eren on a trip down memory lane, and they were only spectators. Besides, time travel is much more complex and would be a lot more interactive.

So how did Eren manage to manipulate his father? And can he really travel back in time?

Eren didn’t travel back in time. Instead, he used the combined powers of the Founding and Attack Titan to feed Grisha selective memories of the future to motivate him to kill the Royal Family, as seen in Chapter 121.

Can Eren Travel Back In Time?

Eren can’t physically travel back in time, but he can alter the past by narrowing down the choices Attack Titan Shifters can make through the Titan’s shared memory network of past and future holders.

But how does that explain why Grisha could interact with Zeke and Eren?

In Chapter 121, Grisha explains that the Attack Titan’s characteristic and unique ability was to access the memories of the future holders.

So, as Grisha was living in the past during the basement and chapel scene, he was fed memories of Eren’s future, which happened to be what Eren saw during the Yaeger brothers’ simulation run of Grisha’s past.

As a result, Grisha was able to see Zeke on both occasions. And if you want more proof, Eren was always behind Grisha and had the same view of Zeke as his father did.

Zeke and Grisha probably felt each other when they embraced as a result of the Paths transcendence of the laws of nature. Even though he could be hugging nothing in reality, both could have felt the sensation.

However, Grisha cannot see Eren’s future self (unless a mirror is used) as Shifters of the past only saw the memories of the future holders from their viewpoint.

But he was able to sense a presence as he turned to ‘face’ Eren in the crystal cavern and at the doorstep of his house. He knew there was a source from the future emanating its memories and emotions.

As for ‘talking’ to Grisha, Eren paraphrased Kruger’s speech the day he inherited the Attack Titan to rekindle his rage.

‘Stand’, ‘Even if we die’, ‘Even after we die’ and ‘This is the story that you started’ – was all Grisha needed to remember Faye, Dina, his fallen comrades and the Eldians that were crushed under Marley oppression.

Plus, he had no idea that the Titans had already breached Shiganshina at the time and was probably desperate to ensure Carla’s, Eren’s and Mikasa’s safety, which further added fuel to the fire to steal the Founder from the Royal Family.

Zeke allowing Eren into Grisha’s memories gave Eren the chance to sway his father and complete the loop that sets him on the Path of initiating the Rumbling.

1. Did he influence the previous Shifters?

Eren has controlled the previous Attack Titan Shifters to the extent that his insane thirst for freedom manifested itself as the Titan’s characteristic trait, as stated by Kruger in Chapter 88.

He explains that the Attack has ‘always moved ahead, sought and fought on for freedom’. Sound familiar? But it doesn’t stop there.

In Chapter 121, Grisha surmised that the reason for the Attack Titan’s holders not to obey anyone was to fight against the Royal Family, which is eerily similar to Eren’s hatred of the Family’s self-righteousness.

So did Eren pull such a feat even before he was born?

Eren’s made full use of the Attack Titan’s ability by selectively leaking memories of the future to manipulate the past Shifters into staying on track as he did with Grisha.

Was he in control of everything?

Eren did control significant events that would progress the past to the future he wanted. However, he wasn’t privy to every detail and was also at risk of being killed along the way.

While there were several instances where the timeline would temporarily not go in his favour – The Founder Ymir’s loyalty to the Royal Family, numerous kidnappings and near-death situations, they were all hiccups in his cleverly crafted web.

Eren is essentially playing connect the dots with his past self and the previous Attack Titan Shifters by influencing significant milestones within the timeline that motivates them to move on through the hiccups in between.

But if his future self could control all the Eldians in the past, present and future because of the Founding Titan, why didn’t he nip Karl Fritz’s pacifist reign at the bud?

Well, Karl Fritz’s self-righteousness and the misery that followed happened to be an enormous hiccup that would ensure Eren’s birth and his inheritance of the Attack and Founding Titan.

Thus, true to the memes of Eren hovering over Isayama, he is the author of his own story and is the freest character of the bunch.

1. Did he kill his mother?

Eren shockingly admits to Armin in Chapter 139 that he killed his mother when he steered the Smiling Titan, aka titanized Dina Fritz, away from Bertholdt.

Eren manipulated Dina to stay away from Bertholdt so that he could live to be eaten by Armin later on using the combined powers of the Attack and Founding Titan, plus the timeless dimension of the Path.

In addition to ensuring that Armin lives, he also did it to sow hatred in his younger self so that his journey moving forward would complete the loop crafted by his future self.

Why did Grisha give Eren his Titans?

This is easily the fandom’s most mind-boggling question ever since the episode dropped. Surely Grisha knew that Eren inheriting his Titans would get the Rumbling rolling. So why didn’t he prevent it when he had the chance?

He had no choice because of the Curse of Ymir and the nature of the Paths in picking a Shifter holder.

Grisha’s tenure of the Attack Titan was almost up, and he couldn’t run the risk of it winding up in Marley because of the Paths’ lottery system of choosing a random Eldian as the next holder in the event of his death without passing it on.

Besides, he may not have wanted to tamper with the future Eren set in stone for fear of entering an unknown timeline or potentially wreaking havoc on the past or the space-time continuum.

Carla’s death may have also triggered him to give Eren his Titans out of rage and grief, or he also could have seen or deduced his son’s decision to kill Carla and dejectedly accepted his inevitable fate.

He could have also been holding onto the faint hope that Zeke could somehow stop Eren after his desperate warning. But if you’d like to know if Zeke managed to succeed, check out the spoiler below.

Zeke wasn’t able to stop Eren from starting the Rumbling, but he did stop it when he was decapitated by Levi in Chapter 137, which allowed the Alliance to focus their attention on killing Eren without worrying about the survivors in Fort Salta

About Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. Kodansha publishes it in the Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.

The manga began serialization on September 9th, 2009, and ended on April 9, 2021. It has been compiled into 34 volumes.

Attack on Titan follows humanity settled within three concentric walls to protect themselves from the terrifying titans that prey on them. Eren Yeager is a young boy that believes that a caged life is similar to that of cattle and aspires to go beyond the walls one day, just like his heroes, the Survey Corps. The emergence of a deadly Titan unleashes chaos.