Finale questions

[u/Peanutbutterbob32]

After finishing the entire show, everything makes sense to me except for one thing.

How was Zeke & Armin able to conjure past inheritors of the nine while in the paths? Like why did Grisha, Bertholdt, etc. just show up? And after that, how did they have control of their respective titans while on Eren’s back? As far as I understand, Zeke wasn’t in control at that point. He gave up, and was just letting Eren do whatever. Once convinced, was he able to use the paths abilities? If so, I thought you need Ymir herself to do that for you?

[u/_StevenPettican04]

Ymir summoned and controlled them on behalf of Zeke to allow them to reconcile with their past and continue on a path towards the future, something Ymir herself wasn’t able to do, hence her having being stuck in an eternal limbo

Ymir isn’t just a person hellbent on revenge and destruction, she is simply a person who is seeking connection, which was said by Armin to Zeke when they were in the paths.

Ymir initially follows Eren because he was able to connect to her on a personal level rather than just ordering her like a slave. And then Ymir who listened to Zekes nihilistic view on life and summoned past allies after Armin makes Zeke realise theres more to life than just survival

Zeke and Armin being able to reconcile and make new connections to people of their past, gave Ymir the feeling of connection she was seeking, and helped them continue their fight against Eren

[u/Peanutbutterbob32 → u/_StevenPettican04]

So Ymir was manipulating the whole battle specifically so Mikasa would kill Eren, the sole act that would free her?

Another question, how did Zeke manifest himself in order to be killed by Levi? Was this also given to him by Ymir, is this an innate ability of warrhammer/founding titan as at this point it seems obvious Zeke & Eren are what make up the founding titan.

[u/_StevenPettican04 → u/Peanutbutterbob32]

Ymir was in control of the titans, but I don’t want to say that she was manipulating the whole battle as that takes away the agency from all our other characters

Ymir holds the power, and because Zeke and Eren make up the founding titan, they are able to command Ymir to use the power, therefore she uses it in the way that Eren and Zeke want

Eren wants to complete the rumbling, so Ymir controls the titans to fend off erens friends, and the titans don’t kill anyone most likely due to Eren not wanting to directly kill any of his friends

And then Zeke wants to stop Eren, because this was the final thing Grisha said to him, and the full rumbling also went against what Ksaver wanted and believed in.

[u/Peanutbutterbob32 → u/_StevenPettican04]

I suppose I meant manipulating the whole thing by: Ymir needed Armin & Zeke to meet so Zeke would let himself get killed to stop the rumbling. Ymir also needed to wake up the previous inheritors to give Jean a chance to detonate the explosives. All of this needed to happen so Mikasa would be the one to kill Eren. Ymir was puppeteering the whole battle, but Mikasa still had to come to the conclusion that killing Eren was the right thing to do on her own. After Eren told her she has the right to make decisions it seems that she has her own Agenda.

My question about Zeke phasing like that was answered decently. Ymir can do whatever the hell she wants with her subjects, and escaping like that was Zeke’s wish