Zeke doesnt know how titans came to be, he only knows that the founder ymir made a deal with the devil because that's what he's been taught. Only eren knows, at least for now. Also, zeke doesnt necessarily care about what will happen after eldians are all dead. He wants them all to die because they speficially at this point in time have killed too many people in their history to have their sins forgiven, so making eldians go extinct would solve this issue, at least in his mind. Zeke does this more for himself than for the world

Yep it is established that both Eren and Zeke are selfish

I still don't know what Armin thinks he's doing though lol

Armin is in a constant internal battle between logic and emotions. He will come up with plans like closing the hole in the walls with a boulder using eren's titan or the attack on liberio plan in season 4 and then cling to a painfully idealistic hope that eren wont break all the walls and destroy the world. He's supposed to be erwin's replacement now, but he doesnt have erwin's cold blooded wits, because, unlike erwin, armin has a very strong feeling of empathy, something that he notes in season 1 guys like erwin have to reject in order to make difficult decisions. Armin is smart, but bound by his humanity. Erwin is smart and let go his humanity to make the impossible happen.

And even then, armin's humanity is also kinda selfish. He clearly cares more about his friends than everyone else, so when something has to be done that involves ending lives, he still finds the will to kill people to reach a certain goal, although still being saddened by his actions. But when it comes to mikasa, eren, jean, connie, he loses all rationale and becomes too attached to emotions, so he becomes sorta useless. Eren says in season 3 part 2 that armin will save the world because unlike eren, he's idealistic, human and shares a simple, yet noble dream, while eren has been consumed by rage, a gradual loss of humanity and a obsessive yearning for freedom. I wonder if armin will save the world at the end and isayama once again has foreshadowed it years prior, but idk

The story of Ymir has always been vague ever since the “deal with the devil” book that Frieda read Historia showed up. Even Kruger said that there were many rumors about how Titans came to be, even sighting Ymir coming into contact with the source of all matter and that sounds even more vague than a singular parasite lol.

But the truth is it was all a chance encounter with something that can’t be explained by anyone that hadn’t seen it happen.

founding titan lady was sexy i can't lie

Fr, I'd ruin her walls

Gabi is too unlikeable for it but I’d love a Gabi did nothing wrong train

This is always the disconnect I have with cyclical narratives, at what point was an actual choice even made

everything that occurred in the future had to happen for everything at a certain point (ep 4 on) to occur

They had one during the manga run. I think it might happen again towards the end of the season

Technically everything was a choice. The "time" travel doesn't make it pointless in this series with how it works with Eren.

Don't let the eren memes make you think he plotted every single detail lol

my sticking point is that it all seems predestined though. I guess that's the curse of living out the timeline the author wanted. the convenient things that needed to occur to progress the intended narrative had to happen

connie is wild lol

You're thinking about something that has very little plot relevance, saying the tree gave Ymir the power could've worked just as fine, the story is written that way by design.

Exactly, there's no real need for the story to get bogged down by exposition of every little detail.

Do you think a man who had his daughters eat their mother's corpse, wouldn't have spent his life trying to gain the power for himself? Suspend disbelief for something that plays very little in the story being told.
Zeke's euthanisia plan is explained because it plays on the theme of the story being told. You don't have Mech anime spending massive amounts of time explaining the inner workings of the mechs.

He’s like a medieval king tho who says he tried to look for more parasites?? And that he would find them around the world? It hasn’t been established u all just assume that so it’d make sense with the story

I’m sorry but it is overlooked

And true I don’t want them to explain everything but they explained a lot of things in detail and just forgot about that part

How are you going to say you don't need them to explain everything, then why get stuck on an explanation that is borderline a throwaway story. Just think of it as Ymir making a deal with the devil.
It's not unreasonable to assume there's only one of those trees, especially with what inspired the tree itself.
There are more interesting things to get hung up on not getting more of an explanation than the tree.

I stopped talking about it u decided to quote me with a theory. Either it doesn’t need to be explained or it’s explainable and makes perfect sense it can’t be both.

I didn't make up a theory, I used the deal with the devil as an example, because that's what's in the manga/anime.
The cards halfway through the episode go out their way to make it as vague as possible, at some point take a hint. It's not that it's unexplainable, it just doesn't need explaining, because it doesn't serve the story anymore than what's been put into the story.

Saying one of these things:

1. The king will 100% look for and find all the parasites if they existed because he’s hungry for power

2. There is only one parasite and it connected with Ymir and if the Eldians get euthanized it can’t happen again

3. They already thought about the existence of parasites and part of the plan is destroying the parasites

These are all theories u can explain the inconsistency with, you quoted me with the first and others with the second and third.

When I told you it wasn’t established you said it doesn’t even matter and it’s symbolic. If that’s the intention that’s cool, so don’t pretend it was explained.

The only theory I can agree with is that Zeke didn’t know about Ymir’s background story and that it would be a flaw in his plan that he didn’t think about. But since they show him as an all knowing god it’s hard to infer that’s their intention.

So the only explanation is that it doesn’t matter and the way Titans were created could’ve been anything. And that’s fine but considering all the detail we’re putting other plot points this one feels off. Because you’d think the creation of Titans would be vital to the world and the way things are.

Watching the anime up to this point, can you really say how the titans came to be really matters to the story being told? And even if the same thing could happen again, why would it change Zeke's plan, which basically revolves around atoning for his people's sin. How the rest of the world interacts with each other its irrelevant to him or the story, if the same thing happens again that's for those people to decide not him.

If you've watched/read fullmetal alchemist read, otherwise dont.
If im being honest, being this nitpicky about this certain thing is like questioning if there's only one dwarf in the flask in fullmetal alchemist. Its never explained where it came from or how many there are, and while the first one we'll never know and frankly dont even want to know, the second is never explained. But there's no need to, otherwise we would have known in the story, since its a peculiar entity with great power. We would've seen the impact another being like it would've done to the world presented, and if there wasnt anything like it that means there's only one. It happens a lot in fictional stories with fantastical creatures, especially in manga where its not usual to explain everything. In this case its a logical assumption, and that's why nobody really questions it either in fma or in aot.

weww its heatin up